
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 


































ft 
































* 
































' 













































































































































































- 
























































































































































































■ 































































































• 




• 

4 


• 












































































































The old lady turned towards her niece 


(See page 168.) 








MADELEINE’S RESCUE 


A STORY FOR GIRLS AND BOYS 



JEANNE SCHULTZ 

w 

AUTHOR OF THE STORY OF COLETTE, STRAIGHT ON, ETC. 


WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS BY TOFANI 








Copyright, 1894, 

By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 


Electrotyped and Printed 
at the Appleton Press, U. S. A. 




CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — A gap in the hedge. — A fearful gulf. — A man-hunt. — 

The effect of heat on tattooing . . . . i 

II. — A family quarrel. — The woes of solitude. — Uncle History, 

Uncle Tracery, and Aunt Sew-a-Seam . . .15 

III. — In quest of fellow-creatures. — Save Madelon ! — A council 

of war. — Some amendments ..... 33 

IV. — The Bridge Terrible. — A good night’s sleep. — The first 

days. — Equestrian exercises 48 

V. — Shooting the rapids. — Phanlaire and Phanlonde. — In 

honour of Uncle Auguste. — A fatal kiss . . . 63 

VI. — Aunt Estelle and Madeleine. — The final catastrophe. — 

Aunt Sew-a-Seam’s intrenchments. — The scaling of 

the turret 77 

VII. — Telegraphy by sight and hearing. — A great resolve. — An 

elaborate toilet. — Face to face with Aunt Sew-a-Seam 92 

VIII. — The impossibility of catching rolling shot. — They write 

what they dare not say 106 

IX. — Aunt Estelle’s plain prose. — Uncle Tracery, and what 

he said. — James’s wits at work . . . .119 

X. — Still the Deus ex machina. — Madame Dacaube is pro- 
moted to the honours of the privy council. — The 
Phanlonde carries a message of peace . . .134 

XI. — The sugar castle. — Josette is tempted. — What came of 

a christening-cake 149 

XII. — The pleasures of memory. — How Madeleine was restored 
to her friends. — Walks to the summer-house. — A 
moonlight night. — Eight years later . 1 

(iii) 


63 





































. 







































' 

0 

9 





















* 











■ 






































* 

.* 






s • 







. • . 

» 


































4 








LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

The old lady turned towards her niece . . Frontispiece 


Madeleine put out her hand 8 

Madeleine soon knew every stone of the chapel ... 28 

The cagiques gathered around the great chief .... 39 

The four brothers gave a circus performance .... 59 

The Phanlonde cleared the obstacles ...... 67 

Pierre began his climb 89 

Pierre and Jacques went from one to the other . . . 100 

The two brothers fell on all-fours 109 

The four boys were all talking at once 125 

Madame Dacaube was seated at work on the bank . . .145 

After this flower, Josette took another 156 

(v) 








MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


CHAPTER I. 

A gap in the hedge. — A fearful gulf. — A man-hunt.— The effect of 
heat on tattooing. 

“ To-morrow — or perhaps two to-morrows — and 
I shall be through ” 

And twig by twig, with deft little fingers, Made- 
leine went on snapping off the branches of an 
enormously thick hedge in which she was patient- 
ly effecting a breach. Overhead the tangle was 
dense and green, and in the deep niche which com- 
pletely surrounded her she might have been taken 
for a saint in a church — a saint very thoroughly 

(i) 


2 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


awakened from her stony trance, and impelled by 
an impatience more girl-like than heavenly. 

On the other side, by fits and starts, voices 
could be heard, of which the mere variety of tone 
affected her like the plainest speech, giving en- 
ergy to her efforts, and again bringing them to a 
standstill when noisy and contagious laughter was 
exchanged for a while for savage yells. Then she 
paused, listening eagerly, one foot raised, and her 
skirt gathered round her, while she peeped suspi- 
ciously through the screen of verdure she had a 
moment before been so busily destroying. 

Then, stealing out of her nook, not a leaf rus- 
tling under her cat-like foot-fall, she sat down on 
the ground a little way off, and, shaking her head, 
gravely took counsel with herself, every argument, 
pro and con , reflected in her eyes, till the storm of 
shouts beyond the hedge had subsided. 

Peace having fallen, she was on her feet with 
a bound, and when the sounds of sport were again 
gay and mirthful she set to work once more to 
break the boughs away. And this had been going 
on for days, and the little toiler’s eagerness had 
never for a moment flagged. 

But on this particular Thursday her alterna- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


3 

tions of boldness and alarm had been more than 
usually frequent. The neighbouring tribe seemed 
to be in a state of extreme excitement. There was, 
as it were, a smell of gunpowder in the air, and the 
shouts were interrupted by intervals of utter silence 
— more ominous than the outbreaks to which they 
were evidently a prelude. 

Then began a sort of chant, low and solemn, 
and faster by degrees which carried her away and 
accelerated her movements, though she was still 
undecided ; so that she held up with one hand 
the twigs she broke off with the other, trying at 
the same time to preserve and to destroy them, 
till the inevitable occurred — her left arm, aching 
and overweighted, gave way suddenly, and, drop- 
ping by her side, let the whole mass of branches 
fall. 

Either Madeleine’s estimates as to “ two to- 
morrows” had been incorrect, or she had worked 
three times as fast in the last hour as she had ever 
done before ; the gap was made, and through the 
niche, now suddenly become a window, a vast park 
was visible. Twenty yards beyond, behind some 
silvery alders, figures were coming and going, leap- 
ing in time to the strange chant, broken at inter- 


4 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


vals by a guttural shriek, which had puzzled the 
little girl all the morning. 

Madeleine leaned out, measuring with her eyes 
a ditch which she had not expected to find skirting 
the park under the hedge where she was standing; 
this was an obstacle on which she had not counted. 
It was wide and deep, full of greenish, slowly run- 
ning water, and gay with flowering water plants 
creeping up the banks ; and it intensified her desire 
to reach the other side, just as at first the thorny 
wall had spurred her efforts to break a way through. 

One jump — she was strong and nimble — could 
she not cross it at a jump ? 

So, half shutting her eyes to calculate the dis- 
tance more exactly, she marked a clump of forget- 
me-nots on which to alight. 

The ditch was widest just in front of the gap in 
the hedge, and it seemed to be on purpose, for to 
the right and left it looked to Madeleine quite nar- 
row. But she could only get across from the spot 
where she stood ; so, making up her mind, she 
withdrew to get a run, holding her frock with both 
hands. 

Besides, the voices were coming nearer. Made- 
leine wished to surprise, not to be surprised ; so, 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


5 

with a grand rush and a silent invocation to the 
unknown Providence that cares for those who leap 
rashly, off she went head foremost. 

She sprang with all her strength, doubled up 
into a ball, through the leafy opening that rustled 
as she passed ; but as she crossed the ditch with a 
momentum which promised success, a party came 
rushing out of the brushwood with no less vehe- 
mence, though with less obvious reason for it. 

Whether it was the unexpectedness of the thing, 
the indescribable aspect of the raiders, the weapons 
they brandished, or the fearful yells which filled the 
air — whether it was miscalculation on her part, or 
spite on the part of the clump of forget-me-nots on 
the bank — who can say ? but her foot slipped, 
and, losing ground inch by inch, plunged into the 
water. The calm surface responded with a noisy 
“ flop,” and broke into rings which rolled and 
spread, eager to carry the story from shore to shore ; 
while above, in the avenue, the galloping horde 
came nearer and nearer, and above the uproar she 
could distinctly hear these words : 

“ A pale-face ! a pale-face ! A man-hunt ! Hunt 
down the white-face ! ” 

To jump back again across the ditch was impos- 


6 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


sible, and to stay there doing nothing, awaiting the 
imminent onslaught, seemed even more terrible to 
the little girl. 

Panic seized her; there was a singing in her 
ears. Without reflecting, and seeing nothing, she 
plunged the other foot in the water, walked a little 
way along the ditch, scrambled up the slippery 
bank, and then, like a coursed hare, flew off down 
the first path she saw, running as if for her life. 

Meanwhile the party approached the shore, four 
heads inquisitively reconnoitred, and then, spying 
on the left the little girl as she clambered up and 
fled, the whole party rushed in pursuit with shouts 
of glee. It was no longer make-believe and play ; 
it was a real chase, and they were carried away by 
a frenzy of eagerness. 

In an instant they were scattered at various dis- 
tances ; they ceased to shout ; the action of their 
lungs was no more than enough for breath. 

The light-coloured skirts vanished round the 
first clump of shrubs. Each of the four, guided 
by guess-work, followed up a different track, giv- 
ing a short “Tally-ho!” when one or another 
caught sight of her, till at length they were all at 
her heels in a straight driveway, into which the 


MADELEINE'S RESCUE. 


7 


poor child had imprudently turned, too spent to 
keep a lookout. 

Now and again, indeed, she tried to diverge into 
a thicket, but at the storm of yells she set off 
afresh. Quite unable to distinguish whence the 
sound came, she fancied she had rushed amid the 
foe, and continued her wild career. Her breath was 
failing her, her legs grew heavy and weak, her throat 
was dry and cramped ; she was losing ground at 
every step. Before her, at the end of the path, a 
copse seemed to grow before her eyes — to be flying 
to meet her at the speed of an express. If she could 
reach it she would be safe— at least so she thought 
— and with a supreme effort, such as hardly the 
Greek from Marathon could have outdone, she put 
forth her last strength. 

But a root lay across the path like a snare ; the 
child’s foot was caught in it, and she fell on her 
hands and knees with all the force of her speed. 

Thus, for the second time within a few minutes, 
the god of the daring had played Madeleine false. 
Before she had strength enough to raise her be- 
numbed limbs her pursuers had come up with her. 

Two, three, four of them — with a noise like 
galloping colts, one by one, as if they were missiles 



KBr 


p-j 

iiipi 

’ >*■ • !i4«' 

■ I 




1\1\| 




mm 


• Y \ 

SL\ 

\11 


• :)y '[>CTSW- 

W' : l{ 
=■’ '/ 

m, HI 



Madeleine put out her hand. 



MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


9 


from some enormous machine shot forward sepa- 
rately, but with such momentum that each one at 
first overshot the spot where the poor little girl was 
lying. Then all four, turning back, bent over her. 
When she heard their panting gasps, the only sound 
that broke the silence, Madeleine looked up, and, 
seeing the four scarlet faces with eyes starting from 
their sockets, quite close to her own, she put out 
her hand as in a last effort to defend herself, and 
with a faint cry fell back. 

The violent exertion, her intense fright, and the 
shock of her fall were more than her little nerves 
could stand ; and while her persecutors were staring 
at each other in bewilderment she had lost con- 
sciousness. 

It would indeed be difficult to imagine stranger 
figures than these which now stood over her. Their 
faces striped with blue, ochre, and red, mingled in 
an impossible and grotesque sort of tattooing; their 
bare arms decorated by the same method, with a 
flaming sun on each shoulder; their heads crowned 
with tufts of some unknown green stuff, the whole 
smeared and bathed and streaming with perspira- 
tion, produced a perfectly hideous result. 

Startled and terrified, they stood mute, not 


10 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


daring to speak or move, as they looked at the 
little lifeless figure. whose closed eyes struck a chill 
to their hearts. 

So full of life a moment since, and now dead, 
as it would seem ! They felt as if they were be- 
fore something precious but broken, and they did 
not dare to touch it for fear of aggravating the 
mischief. However, in a moment the eldest of the 
party broke the useless silence of contemplation, and 
said, in a voice of command, though he spoke low : 
“ Take her feet ” — to the calmest of his three broth- 
ers — “ and I will take her head. She has fainted. 
We must carry her to the spring.” 

And the procession started, the little girl sway- 
ing with the irregular pace of her bearers, the others 
following without a word. 

They laid her on the grass under the shade of 
the trees she had so anxiously striven to reach a 
few minutes ago, and four pocket handkerchiefs at 
once were produced ; but all four at once paused 
on their way to the water when their owners ob- 
served their hue. 

However, this was no time for superfluous 
daintiness ; they boldly soaked the dirty rags and 
applied them to Madeleine’s temples and hands, 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


II 


dabbing her white forehead as tenderly as a mother 
could. The motion through the air, the cool grass 
couch, and the chill of the water soon had an effect. 
The little girl opened her hands with the feeble 
action of a waking infant, and moved her lips, as 
though her first vital impulse was to speak ; then 
she slowly opened her eyes. 

And then, still close to her, were the faces which 
had petrified her just now, but so sincerely anxious, 
and with such a friendly look of pity under their 
grotesque paint, that she could not help smiling ; 
and from one to another the smile spread, lighting 
up all the daubed countenances. Still, no one 
ventured to move ; the boys remained motionless, 
kneeling on one knee, watching her eyelids, which 
quivered slightly, and fearing to see them close 
again. 

Thus matters remained for a minute. Then the 
contrast between their hideous war-paint and their 
distressed expression was so perfectly ludicrous, and 
in spite of their pathetic anxiety they were so awk- 
ward, that the absurd side of the case suddenly 
struck the little girl. She burst into a fit of gig- 
gling laughter, as impossible to control as her alarm 
had been. 


12 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


Relieved, at first, of a mountain of perplexity, 
and then somewhat offended, her attendants stood 
up, still squeezing those indescribable handkerchiefs 
from which a brown fluid slowly dripped ; and their 
feelings were so plainly expressed in their dark- 
ened looks, that Madeleine would have given any- 
thing in the world to be able to command her- 
self. But in vain did she look down, turn away 
her head, and try to think of the saddest things ; 
the air of cold dignity with which the boys regarded 
this unexpected solution of the difficulty was too 
much for her ; leaning on her elbow, her chin rest- 
ing on her hand, she laughed irresistibly. 

The boys, undecided in their wrath, still stood 
waiting, enraged at the sense of impotence which 
is inevitable in such cases, and feeling at length a 
fierce longing to slap the little girl, and see if that 
would quell her provoking mirth. Their fingers 
twitched till they had to clench their hands to 
hinder them from bestowing the punishment they 
ached to give her. 

But you cannot beat any one for laughing ! On 
a sudden, with one accord, they turned on their 
heels, unable to restrain themselves any longer, and 
feeling that there was no safety but in flight. 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


13 

The effect was immediate. What? Vex them ! 
Drive them away! Nothing could be further from 
Madeleine’s wishes. She was suddenly grave, and 
began to apologize, calling them back, imploring 
them with such earnest humility as could not fail 
to salve their wounded pride. 

“No, no! Forgive me! I am not laughing!” 
At this daring assertion the four heads looked 
back, and they halted in their retreat. “ What, 
then, did she call laughing ? ” 

But she corrected herself at once, and in a tone 
of abject entreaty she went on : 

“ I am not laughing now. Do not go away. 
I was not laughing at you ! ” 

And then, as the boys turned back, mollified 
and very curious, and as Madeleine, when she 
looked at them, felt that dreadful giggling fit rising 
again, she added, as quickly as possible, “ It is that 
— that — streaming down ! ” 

She pointed at them, and the brothers looked 
at each other for the first time since the chase. 
What — whose were these foreheads, chins, cheeks, 
that looked like newly set palettes smeared with a 
sweep of the hand ? And, in the same exuberant 
spirits that they had shown before in shouting and 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


1 4 

racing, they threw themselves on the grass, rolling 
with wild merriment, and encouraging their laugh- 
ter with grimaces and monkey tricks when it 
showed signs of flagging. 

No one could more resolutely do the honours 
of a grotesque appearance, and the neighbouring 
echoes fell asleep that evening full of glee as the 
reward of their listening. 



Monsieur de Brevonnes kept Madeleine at his side. 


CHAPTER II. 

A family quarrel. — The woes of solitude. — Uncle History, Uncle 
Tracery, and Aunt Sew-a-Seam. 

A week on board ship together is said to 
make people more intimate than a years acquaint- 
ance on dry land. 

Madeleine no doubt thought that any great 
monotony or crisis has the same peculiar effect, 
for when she had recovered herself, with no traces 
left of her excitement but the painful little sobs 
which end a fit of laughter, and as soon as the 
others were quiet, she said, with much simplicity: 

“ Now that you are my friends, you must be 
told my name. I am Madeleine Leheurle. We 

(15) 


16 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

are your neighbours on the other side of the hedge, 
and I came to look for you because I am so mis- 
erable.” 

Madeleine’s misery, it would seem, was quali- 
fied by a modicum of philosophy ; the friendship 
was very new, and merriment not far off ; still, she 
had spoken truly. With the delightful spontaneity 
and frank ardour of youth they were friends already, 
giving their whole hearts with that facile generosity 
which does not survive our debut in life, and which 
makes up for its instability by its fervid impetus. 
So the eldest of the lads replied with responsive 
eagerness : 

“And our names are James, Andrd, Pierre, and 
Jacques Dacaube. And if we can help your being 
miserable, you will never be sorry again.” 

And the boy who answered to the name of 
Pierre added, in a gentle voice : 

“We are red-skins and savages. We will fight 
every one who is unkind to you, and scalp them 
afterwards.” 

The two others, meanwhile, had piled up a heap 
of moss into a high throne, on which they made 
the little girl sit, saying : 

“Now tell us your troubles; we are listening.” 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


7 


But Madeleine, surprised and touched by their 
prompt sympathy, could find no words. She would 
have to relate her whole little history, and first she 
wanted to hear that of her new friends. 

As to this they made no difficulties. It did 
not amount to much. The four brothers, sons 
of a naval officer who had been away on duty 
for some months, lived with their mother in a 
quiet retreat she had selected for her two years of 
solitude, far enough from the neighbouring town 
to enjoy all the freedom of a country life, but near 
enough to enable her boys to go every morning to 
the college where they were being educated. They 
reached the town in a little cart which they drove 
in turns with the greatest energy. 

“If it were but a few miles farther we could 
not go at all!” sighed Jacques, never remembering 
that in that case they would be obliged to board 
at school, instead of being day boys, to the 
loss of those hours of liberty which they now en- 
joyed. 

The four brothers, aged from ten to fourteen, 
with a year between each, were the most united 
fraternity possible — the wildest and happiest four 
in the world. Their nickname at school was 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


“Jacob’s Ladder,” or the Ladder — a far-fetched pun 
on the name Dacaube (d’Jacob). 

Thoroughly good comrades, though all-sufficient 
to themselves, always at the head of every adven- 
turous scheme or enterprise, and equally ready to 
share the responsibility and the fun, they enjoyed 
collectively and individually that extraordinary 
popularity of which it is often difficult to detect 
the secret, but which in this case, perhaps, was due 
to the genuineness of their enthusiasm in all they 
did. Whether it was folly or prudence, the hobby 
ridden by the “ Ladder ” invariably ran away with 
all their chums ; their projects were always so novel 
and well planned, and they were so sure of what 
they were doing. There was no sign in them of 
the apathy and indifference with which so many 
young people are afflicted. They had all the graces 
of their age — spirit, confidence, folly, and good faith, 
besides the gift — the happiest gift of all — of believ- 
ing in success. And by dint of this belief they per- 
suaded others ; so true is it that there is but one 
secret of eloquence— conviction ; and they carried 
all before them. 

Being what they were and feeling as they felt, 
all the changeful emotions of the last hour are 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


19 


equally explained : the wild pursuit, the tender pity, 
their wrath and misunderstanding, and now their 
enthusiasm as of knights setting forth to do battle, 
though as yet they knew not in what cause. 

Very timidly, for fear of reviving smouldering 
fires, Madeleine had asked the meaning of the 
strange disguise which had led to all her disasters, 
and Pierre had needed no pressing to tell it all. 
Since the beginning of the summer holidays— it 
was now September — the quartet, crammed with 
romantic reading and yearning for the freedom of 
Nature, had turned “savages.” Woolly-headed ne- 
groes, grim Polynesian Islanders, Malay fishers and 
divers, Indians of the pampas, dreamy Tahitians 
swinging in hammocks of creepers — they had been 
all in turn, but had finally decided on becoming 
haughty Mexican cagiques whenever the sun shone, 
and mere red-skins on dull afternoons, and devot- 
ing all their energies to giving themselves an un- 
mistakable stamp of reality. 

Hence the tattooing, now so deplorable, the 
flaming sun, the bow and arrows, the hatchet, and 
the mysterious tuft of some dried plant, so green 
and silky that Madeleine was admiring it still. 

But, in answer to her questions, the mystery 


20 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


was solved at once. “ What ! had she never plucked 
maize to make a beard or curls on each side of her 
face?” 

To the great surprise of the cagiques, Made- 
leine had never once seen maize, and little Jacques 
ran off to a neighbouring field to cut an ear, which 
he brought to show her. 

The sheathing leaves so closely wrapped, the 
silky tuft hanging like flax round a distaff — the 
very shape of the ear — helped the fancy ; and when 
the leaves were torn away the little girl was 
charmed to gather up the delicate silky filaments, 
pulling them through her fingers again and again. 

In Brittany, where her home had been, these 
beautiful ears are unknown ; and the little, round, 
pale-yellow grain, lying in rows like threaded beads, 
quite enchanted her. 

Eager to expatiate on its merits, the four boys 
all talked at once. 

“Toasted on a red-hot shovel, while the ear was 
still unripe and milky — toasted ! Madeleine must 
taste it! — bursting — popped — smelling deliciously, 
and so uncomfortably hot in your hands. And the 
white, floury maize dough, eaten raw in lumps ! 
You must not speak or laugh till you have swal- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


21 


lowed it, for fear of choking. And the ripe seeds, 
so hard and dry— first-rate for pelting an enemy, 
like small shot in a battle ! ” 

It might have been the marvellous fruit of the 
Hesperides rediscovered in another form, to hear 
their account of all its wonders. 

For the present, without caring to know so 
much, Madeleine was content to tie the silky tassel 
into the ribbon that bound her hair. The greenish- 
golden lock might have been that of some legendary 
siren, and, thus decorated to match her new friends, 
she was ready to hear more. 

They told her everything: real names which 
they had found in some old-world history, and 
the rites of their wild worship, mixing up what 
they had imagined and what was authentic in 
the strangest medley, till they were reminded, by 
describing the new war-dance they had been re- 
hearsing that morning when Madeleine had so lit- 
erally tumbled into their midst, of the little girl’s 
strange advent, her terror, her fainting, and her lam- 
entation ; and now, in their turn, they desired to be 
told all they wanted to know about her. 

With confidence quite confirmed, and feeling as 
if she had been familiar these ten years with Huas- 


22 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


car, Manco Capac, Atahualpa, and Sinchi-Boca, 
the child told her tale, picking off the kernels of 
the ear of corn while she spoke. 

Madeleine Leheurle had been left an orphan 
about a year ago, and her sad fate had been that 
of the fatherless, tossed hither and thither, kept for 
a while in one place and then sent to another at 
the convenience of friends. But the case was com- 
plicated in this instance by family circumstances. 
Her sole relatives were a sister and two brothers 
of her mothers. After fifty years of close and af- 
fectionate union, these three persons had one day 
had one of those petty squabbles which often lead 
to consequences far more serious than the original 
dispute. 

In the case of a serious difference there is no 
hope of an accommodation ; the parties agree to dif- 
fer, and the breach is never widened by discussion. 
But on the matter in point, in the first instance a 
mere trifle — the site, namely, of certain outbuild- 
ings which were to be pulled down and recon- 
structed — how could each one help hoping that 
he would get his own way? And the discussions 
had become bitter, one insisting on his position as 
the eldest, the other on his superior judgment as 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


23 


an architect, and the sister urging her claims on 
the ground of the courtesy her brothers had hitherto 
shown her. From irony they had reached sarcasm, 
coldness, sulks ; to that obstinacy which comes of a 
vacuous life, where every little incident is an event, 
and then to irreparable speech, raising barriers of 
pride and constraint which neither cared or dared 
to pass. 

At last the three lives, which had been one, 
drifted apart. The elder brother remained in the 
home of his fathers, with his dilapidated outhouses, 
which he had not the heart to rebuild anywhere ; 
the sister retired alone to a house of her own, where 
she had hitherto resided only nominally, spending 
nine months of the year with her brother ; the third, 
the architect, went to the neighbouring town, where 
he lived in a queer old building adjoining a fine 
chapel he was engaged in restoring, for which the 
plans and designs, the . statues and turrets, had, for 
months occupied their evenings together. 

Thus, deeply grieved at heart, they had gone 
on living, each day adding weight and length to 
their estrangement, and making the division more 
absolute. 

It was soon after the quarrel, and without even 


24 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


knowing of it or having the opportunity of trying 
to mend matters, that Madeleine’s mother, a much 
younger sister, died suddenly, leaving her child to 
their care ; and this, which ought to have drawn 
them together, only added fuel to their animosity. 

Who was to have the child ? The elder brother 
had the law on his side, if he chose to assert his 
right to take her. He undoubtedly had the power. 
But Josette’s little girl! — would he be so cruel as 
to take Josette’s child from the others? 

And, instead of simply joining hands to form 
a circle out of which no power could remove the 
child, each one put forward claims and reasons — 
the head of the family, as her legitimate guardian ; 
the architect, as living in a town where the little 
girl would have opportunities for education and life 
which the others could not give in the country, 
not to speak of the much larger fortune he could 
promise her ; the sister, as . being the only woman 
of the family, and therefore the one who should 
exert her influence on the little girl’s mind. 

Monsieur de Brevonnes never for a moment 
dreamed of exerting his authority to take posses- 
sion of the child of the sister they had so fondly 
loved, still less of surrendering her to them ; so, 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


25 


imitating in a figurative sense the judgment of 
Solomon, he cut Madeleine’s life in three, taking 
her to himself and giving her to each of the others 
for four months of the year. To this arrangement, 
fair in itself, there was but one objection — it took 
small account of what the child might suffer, and 
this was infinitely more than the good folks could 
imagine — so far themselves from the sorrows, crav- 
ings, and needs of childhood that they had lost all 
notion of them. 

It was first under the roof of her guardian, who 

was at the time absorbed by business relating to 

her affairs, that Madeleine began her new life, and 

she had soon fallen a victim to melancholy, verging 

on nostalgia. Kind, tender, and careful as he was, 

there was a world of woes unrevealed to him in 

the grief of a child suddenly torn from her mother 

and from all she had loved, to be transplanted to 

this great house, where the tall, gloomy old man 

filled so small a space. A thousand questions she 
* 

dared not ask tormented her brain, as to the dread- 
ful, unknown thing which had created the void she 
felt, with all the refinements of horror which im- 
agination paints as even worse than the reality 

when it replies to its own questioning. 

3 


26 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


Her uncle could not talk of a past which war 
doubly painful to him, now that his dead sister and 
his living sister were equally lost to him ; he could 
not divine Madeleine’s mute longing for stories of 
“ mamma, when she was a little girl,” any more than 
her frenzy of dread at the silence and gloom of the 
great rooms and endless corridors, or the sad state 
of mind which was growing on her amid all these 
trials. 

He had taken entire charge of her education, 
feeling convinced that small learning is a charm in 
a woman, and bringing up his niece to exert it to 
the utmost — if, indeed, it be a charm — by the inco- 
herency and variety of his lessons. Of one subject, 
however, he taught her much. Having a passion 
for historical study, he would decipher with erudite 
pleasure the manuscript and black-letter treasures 
of which the old library at the manor was full ; and 
he thought he could not do better than initiate his 
niece into his favourite pursuit. So, on wet days 
he kept her at his side for hours, making her follow 
with her tiny fingers the old-world chronicles and 
tales, which he interpreted line by line, thinking that 
their variety ought to enchant her like a fairy tale. 
But, engrossing as it was, the occupation was none 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


2 7 

the less austere, and at the end of the first four 
months of her new existence Madeleine had gone 
to her second uncle saddened and pale, shy and 
nervous, notwithstanding the intimacy in which she 
had lived with the heroes of a bygone time. 

With her uncle Etienne one at least of her sor- 
rows was relieved. Unlike his elder brother, he 
was ready to soothe her regret by reminiscence, and 
all that Madeleine could wish to hear of the past 
was told again and again. Now the mischief took 
an opposite form : her feelings were overwrought. 
The day not infrequently ended with tears, and her 
uncle could only shed his own in sympathy, not 
understanding the harm this refinement of misery, 
quivering at a touch, was doing the child. As for 
children for her companions, there were none, any 
more than at Brdvonnes. 

The columns, capitals, and traceries of her 
uncle’s drawings here took the place of the mediae- 
val chronicles. She soon knew every stone of the 
chapel, for which she conceived a mystical venera- 
tion. And so four months went by, each day more 
deeply influencing her nature, and Madeleine grew 
old-fashioned and grave, with a stamp of eccen- 
tricity which was visibly increasing. 



Madeleine soon knew every stone of the chapel. 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


2 9 


And, to add to her sorrows, a young governess, 
who came twice a week to give her lessons, was 
not to be dazzled by the child’s historical knowl- 
edge, but pitilessly took her back to the beginning 
of things, relying on her ignorance of other sub- 
jects, and justifying herself by saying: “I know 
nothing of your former studies. It will do you 
no harm to learn a thing twice over” — which quite 
exasperated the little girl. 

Much good it was, then, to be familiar with the 
manners and the most trivial acts of the great per- 
sonages of old ; to know them as she .knew the facts 
of daily life! And Madeleine fumed as she won- 
dered whether her life was henceforth to be spent 
in meeting fresh people every few months, who 
would “ know nothing of her former studies,” and 
each in turn take her back to “ Pharamond, 420,” 
to the chapter of definitions in geography, and 
the first four rules of arithmetic, to see what she 
could do ! 

In this frame of mind she arrived at her aunt 
Estelle’s house, called Le Huchoir, and it was 
with a sigh of relief that she saw all the walls 
overgrown with rose? and wistaria and the roof 
covered with shining tiles, while the passages were 


30 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


lighted by huge windows and wainscoted with 
pine wood and gilding, reflecting the sunshine like 
mirrors. 

Neither phantoms nor fear could lurk amid all 
this brightness, and she at once augured well for 
her new phase of life, though here again she was 
met with “ begin at the beginning.” 

“With me, child,” said her aunt, at once, “you 
will learn what men cannot teach — sewing and your 
catechism.” 

And when Madeleine protested that she knew 
her catechism by heart, and quoted a passage, her 
aunt replied : 

“ There are many things which are better learned 
twice than once. I know nothing of your studies. 
We will go back to the beginning.” 

And it was with genuine indignation this 
time that Madeleine opened the book at the 
first page, feeling herself doomed to these eternal 
fresh starts, since there was no reason why “ what 
she knew ” should ever be recognized in this 
piecemeal life of hers, if no one ever chose to 
take account of the months she spent out of 
ken. * 

Besides, excepting that the marvels of architec- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 3 1 

ture were now exchanged for the mysteries of hem- 
stitch, open-work, back-stitch, and button -holes, 
where every thread lay even with its neighbour, the 
poor child found herself in almost the same atmos- 
phere of stagnation. 

Here, again, she had no companion of her own 
age — only a stricken, elderly soul, which, in spite 
of the greatest kindness, was out of all touch with 
hers ; and then, if she spoke of her uncles, she 
met the same cold reserve that she had already 
encountered at Troyes and at Brevonnes, and 
which here was intensified by vehement bitter- 
ness. 

The aunt would listen to her niece’s talk with- 
out interrupting her, but her set lips seemed on 
their guard against any question or answer that 
might start from them. It was evident that on this 
subject she was determined not to speak. Her 
uncles’ stern sadness had not enlightened Made- 
leine ; but she understood stolid resentment — they 
had quarrelled. 

With a child’s keen tact, from that day forth 
she spoke of them no more ; but she felt more for- 
lorn than ever, now that she might not mention 
their names, and, in spite of herself, her letters to 


32 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


Brdvonnes and to her uncle Etienne were con- 
strained in tone. 

She was sorry for them, almost ashamed of hav- 
ing divined their animosity, and fettered by her fear 
of letting it be seen. 






Madeleine had taken a cherry-tree for her watch-tower. 


CHAPTER III. 

In quest of fellow-creatures. — Save Madelon ! — A council of war. — 
Some amendments. 

Matters were in this condition when, one fine 
evening, the Dacaube family, having been at the sea- 
side, came home again. Madeleine had never had 
any reason to dream of their existence, and one 
morning she was roused soon after sunrise by an 
uproarious noise of shouts, voices calling, names 
repeated — sounds which seemed to her the most 
delightful she had ever heard, making her heart 
beat as it had not done for months. 

There was some one living, then, close by — play- 
ing, running — some one, like herself, twelve years old ! 

(33) 


34 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


With a bound she was out of bed, made a hasty 
toilet, finishing it on the stairs, and in five min- 
utes, guided by the voices, she was standing by 
the hedge, her ear alert, her eyes wide open, but 
unable to see through the thick foliage ; intoxi- 
cated by the sounds she heard, laughing with the 
laughter at she knew not what, guessing at what’ 
was going on as the noise came and went, starving 
for some fun, and frankly enjoying the fragments 
she could gather. 

From that moment she spent the best part of 
the day there, watching eagerly, learning first the 
names of her unknown playfellows, then the voice 
belonging to each, and even their various charac- 
teristics, till she could have sworn she knew them. 
She pictured them to herself with distinct physiog- 
nomies : James, tall, very fair, and rather gentle; 
Andr6, rough and square-set ; Pierre, with blue eyes, 
and feet as nimble as his tongue; finally, Jacques, 
the youngest of the four, a fresh, rosy dumpling, 
always laughing ; and this was so established in 
her brain that she would have been vexed with 
any one who contradicted her. Then, by dint of 
listening, her ambition grew, and she wanted to see. 

She had taken for her watch-tower a cherry-tree 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


35 


with a crabbed and twisted trunk, and she spent 
hours of rapture among the reddening leaves, 
amused by rectifying her mistaken notions, and 
watching the brothers in turn — hair, eyes, smile, 
stature — till she had every detail correctly, and till, 
at last, having gazed her fill, she longed, by a third 
stage of development, to exchange the part of spec- 
tator for the livelier one of actress in the drama. 

All the spirit which the previous months had 
extinguished now revived. 

The wide park, where she often lost sight of her 
friends for hours, seemed to her an outskirt of para- 
dise ; she longed to run about under those great 
trees with a vehemence that made her cry. Within 
sight of this intense activity and life, her own isola- 
tion was positive anguish, her longing to share it 
became morbid impatience. So one day, by a sud- 
den impulse, she had begun making the gap in the 
hedge, fully determined to join these privileged be- 
ings, who were four — four to talk, to run, nay, even 
to dispute — and to tell them what she felt — what 
it was that was suffocating her: 

“ I want so badly to talk and laugh ! Run and 
laugh with me ! ” 

The idea of simply telling her aunt of the crav- 


36 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

ing that possessed her did not even occur to her. 
The cld maid, having no notion of how to attract 
the child, had chilled all her freedom and confi- 
dence ; besides, Madeleine would not have allowed 
herself to think that she could be led by the hand 
through two gates straight into Elysium. 

She conceived of it as something much more 
difficult and out of the way, something which any 
assistance must hinder. She persisted in her labo- 
rious task, the hedge being old and dense, with fits 
of timidity when the turmoil beyond was too vio- 
lent, and fits of daring afterwards, as a coward 
rushes into danger, till she made the final leap, 
bold rather than happy, which had carried her into 
the stronghold. 

Though incapable of analyzing the causes of 
her griefs as set forth here, the little girl, in the 
genuineness of her sufferings, found means of strik- 
ing utterance. Her pathetic little voice, the fears 
she spoke of, the long, long days she described 
spent in the gloom of a library or a church ; minor 
details, too, almost comical in themselves, but which 
her trustful simplicity made touching — all this made 
a moving tale, and hearts less warm than those of 
the four brothers would have been touched by it. 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


37 


As for them, melted and conquered, they lis- 
tened to Madeleine’s narrative with bursts of in- 
dignation and gushes of sympathy, interrupting her 
constantly by their vehement expressions of feeling. 
By the aid of all the arts which can save masculine 
pride — rapid winking, nervous giggling, fists rub- 
bing hard at an imaginary eyelash — they succeeded 
in checking the absurd little moisture which now 
and then would dim their eyes ; but this was the 
utmost they could achieve, and as Madeleine ceased 
speaking they broke out impetuously : 

“Poor little thing! poor little Madeleine!” 
This was the phrase they most often repeated, 
with exclamations addressed to Aunt Estelle, fired 
as hard as bullets through the hedge. Then came 
promises for the future, given with the beautiful 
confidence of youth, which believes that things go 
wrong simply because some one has forgotten to 
set them straight, and that merely to attend to 
them is to rectify them. 

“Well,” said they, “now you have us, your 
troubles are all ended ! ” 

“You are one of us four —of us five — and can 
talk and laugh. Here we all are to call you by 
your name.” 


38 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


“ Shall we talk a great deal, now, to make up 
for lost time? Madeleine, Madeleine — Madelon, 
little sister Madelon ! ” 

And it was in vain that little sister Madelon, 
delighted but doubting, reminded them of those 
two uncles and that aunt to whom she belonged, 
alas ! much more than to these four new brothers ; 
they would not listen. 

Uncle History, Uncle Tracery, Aunt Sew-a- 
Seam — the nicknames had been instantly suggested 
by James. 

“ You may be quite easy ; we will save you from 
them, Madelon!” and the three ethers repeated in 
chorus, as solemnly as if it were an oath : 

“We will save you, Madelon!” 

Save Madelon ! It was easy to say ; but save 
her precisely from what ? That was more difficult 
to define. Save her from having lost her mother, 
from being such a child in the care of old relatives 
instead of younger parents, and from suffering from 
the consequent dulness ? These were catastrophes 
of life which could not well be prevented. 

But “Jacob’s Ladder” were not anxious over 
such trifles. Whether the biblical nickname en- 
dowed them with peculiar powers, or whether they 



The casques gathered around the great chief. 





40 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


really had some notion of what they meant to do, 
they had rushed headlong into the matter. On the 
spur of enthusiasm this was always the case with 
the four boys; and enthusiasm, being .in this in- 
stance seconded by warm-hearted pity, was really 
a strong motive. All that they regretted was that 
they had nothing on which to expend their energy, 
no mountain to level then and there ; and they were 
compelled, as they gazed with black looks at the 
house, to admit that, cradled in fresh greenery and 
roses, it was as impregnable a fortress as any other, 
so that there was nothing to be done but to sit 
down again on the grass, and, as the eldest bade 
them, “to deliberate.” 

“ We must hold a council,” said the chief; and all 
the cagiques, resuming their dignity, gathered round 
him, Madeleine facing him on her throne of moss. 

On the question, “ And what, in point of fact, 
can we do?” being put familiarly by Huascar, the 
parliament was opened, and the most various “ mo- 
tions” were put forward in succession. 

“ Let us creep into the house some night, and 
steal all the needles and thread and linen,” said 
one. “ Madelon will have no more sewing to do, 
at any rate.” 


/ 


MADELEINE'S RESCUE. 


41 


But it was explained to him that sewing was 
not the worst of Madeleine’s griefs. 

“ Let her come to us,” said another, “ and live 
with us always. She can breakfast with us, dine, 
and go home to sleep ; and as her aunt troubles 
herself so little about her, she will never even miss 
her.” 

But this was demurred to. How was it possible 
that Mademoiselle Estelle should fail to observe 
the vacant place opposite to her at meals? 

“Well, then,” said Pierre, whose notions were 
always strikingly simple, “we must take Madelon 
away altogether. They will hunt for her every- 
where ; but where you have looked high and low 
for a thing, and are sure that you cannot find it, 
you think no more about it— like me with my 
five-bladed knife. You must not show the tip 
of your nose for some days, that is all. We will 
arrange a pretty little room somewhere at the top 
of the house, where no one ever goes, and each of 
us in turn will bring you whatever food there may 
be. At night Madeleine will open her window, 
like the prisoners in story books; and when Aunt 
Sew-a-Seam has forgotten her niece, Madeleine can 
come down and do whatever she pleases.” 


42 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


This was a definite plan, at any rate, and though 
it offered some serious difficulties it claimed atten- 
tion for a few minutes, and received the honour 
of a discussion. 

~To go to Aunt Estelle, and talk to her; to write 
to Uncle Etienne, who seemed, on the face of it, 
to be the most amenable of the two uncles, and 
set forth his niece’s woes — all this was proposed as 
more feasible, and promising some result, but set 
aside for the present, as was the timid motion of 
little Jacques, who spoke last: “Suppose we were 
to ask mamma?” 

Ask mamma ! when there were four of them to 
solve the difficulty — to fight, if it came to a battle ; 
to be astute, if sagacity were needed ; in short, ready 
for anything ! Such a notion smacked sadly of the 
simplicity of ten. The little fellow, deeply morti- 
fied, said no more, not having enough presence of 
mind to remind them of the endless freaks they had 
plotted by themselves, and in which they had stuck 
fast — by themselves again — till at last they had been 
compelled to depend on their mother’s skilful hand 
to set matters straight. What made such settle- 
ments especially difficult for Madame Dacaube was 
that her adventurous boys never had recourse to 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


43 

her before the critical moment when a reconstruc- 
tion was needed of the wreck they had made, and 
that she left them to gain a knowledge of life by 
the only practical method — their own experience. 

For the nonce nothing was determined on to 
improve their little friend’s lot, beyond the greatest 
affection and the devices of ingenious sympathy ; 
to see her constantly, to cheer her as much as thev 
could, to teach her to play and laugh and not to 
talk so low in that little frightened voice, and even 
to be a little rough. This was all that was needed 
to begin with. By-and-by, when the council should 
be quite agreed, they would proceed from outside 
matters to the more delicate concerns of domestic 
life; but, whatever steps they might decide on, 
Madeleine might sleep in peace; they would an- 
swer for the future. 

Sleep ! Never had Madeleine been less inclined 
for it ; but as to trusting them, that was a settled 
thing — with as much simplicity and as entirely as 
though some cherub, come straight down from 
heaven, had assured her of the infallibility of a 
celestial compact. It must be very easy to arrange 
matters, to judge from her companions’ assurance. 
Though they could not hit on a plan to-day, they 


44 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


would to-morrow, and setting aside the means which 
they felt certain of finding, they went to work to 
build their plans. 

If, two hours before, any one had told the four 
brothers that they would, of their own free will, in- 
vite “a girl” to join their band — that they, the 
most mischief-loving quartette of boys that ever 
lived, would promise that she should be their com- 
rade in everything — games, walks, secret schemes, 
talk and reading; nay, that their only fear in making 
this compact was that it could not be sufficiently 
close, the answer would have been a disdainful 
shrug by way of denial. There are accusations 
which it is absurd to anticipate, and the opinion 
of the boys on this point was well known : “ Never 
will we have anything to do with girls!” Milk- 
sops, tale-bearers, cowards; giving in because they 
are tired, or because it is lunch-time ; crying at 
a word, hampered by their petticoats — the worst 
of all impediments in the boys’ eyes ; they had 
a terrible idea of them, disputed sometimes by 
such of their school-fellows as had sisters or cous- 
ins, but encouraged by others, and among them- 
selves an article of faith. Thus the fact of her 
sex, when Madeleine was no more than a little 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


45 

sprite, rushing away from them in her distracted 
flight, had had something to do with the ferocity 
of their pursuit, and nothing less serious than her 
falling unconscious would have checked the time- 
honoured exclamation of “ Molly-coddle ! ” 

But afterwards, by the spite of Fate and a not 
infrequent revulsion, it was exactly that in the 
little girl at which they had been wont to laugh 
that had appealed to them — her tears, her gentle- 
ness, her alarms. So, perhaps, besides their kind- 
heartedness, the reaction from the other side may 
have thrown them at her feet. Besides this was 
a separate matter. Irrespective of their tender 
pity for Madeleine, Aunt Estelle and the two 
uncles must be made to capitulate. It was to be 
war, in short ; and war was one of their functions, 
and gave them a right to press their services on the 
little girl without too greatly belying their former 
opinions. 

For the moment, the most urgent necessity was 
to secure the communications between Le Huchoir 
and La Jonchere — the home of the Dacaubes. 
Madeleine could not daily achieve the stupendous 
jump which had opened the drama of this morning, 
and the hedge could not be left with a large gap in 


46 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

it, which any servant passing by would at once pro- 
ceed to mend. Nevertheless, the little girl must 
be enabled to get out at any time, and to get in 
again at once at the sound of a call or of the din- 
ner-bell, whether the boys were at hand to help 
or no. 

The problem demanded study, and now, in very 
different order from that of their arrival in the copse, 
the little party made their way back to the park, 
picking up this one his hatchet or tomahawk, and 
that one his knife or amulet — Madeleine her hat 
and a little cape, cast to the winds in her flight — 
all scattered along the road in the most indiscrimi- 
nate manner. 

When they reached the ditch they at once 
made up their minds. A bridge — they must have 
a bridge; and while Pierre and Jacques ran off 
to fetch some planks from a wash - house, where 
all the lumber of the house was stowed, James 
and Andr6, crossing the frontier into the enemy’s 
territory, cut away the roots and snags from which 
Madeleine had elaborately plucked the twigs, since 
they would have interfered with the level of the 
bridge. These they flung one by one into the 
moat, where they made the same “ flop ” that had 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


47 


announced the arrival of the little girl a couple 
of hours before, and this was an inexhaustible 
source of jesting: “Now, Madelon, jump! Swim, 
Madelon ! On my word, Madelon swims capitally ! ” 

And, to conclude, one of them invariably added, 
“ Now, Madelon, climb the other bank, and you will 
find the four best friends you ever had.” 

The little girl, meanwhile, stood laughing hearti- 
ly, to the great delight of the four boys, and inter- 
rupted them in their labours to shake hands over 
this last speech. 




Aunt Sew-a-Seam walked on, evidently in doubt. 


CHAPTER IV. 

The Bridge Terrible. — A good night’s sleep. — The first days. — Eques- 
trian exercises. 

Twice they were stopped in their work by an 
alarm. 

The tall shape of Aunt Sew-a-Seam had crossed 
the garden surrounding the house, among the in- 
credible medley of flowers crowding to open in the 
sun. Her eyes fixed on the ground, her head hang- 
ing sadly — as it always did, Madelon said — she 
walked on, evidently in doubt as to which way she 
should turn. Then propitious Fate had led her to 
the farther side, and the five, who had held their 
breath, gave an “Ah!” of glad relief. Next there 


(48) 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


49 

came a gardener, his rake over his shoulder, clump- 
ing along slowly in his wooden shoes, and he sud- 
denly stopped short, shading his eyes with his hand 
and looking their way. He saw the gap — no doubt 
of that — and, like frogs at the sound of a footstep, 
James and Andre beat a retreat, jumping back to 
the farther bank with an alacrity that made the 
others laugh. But old Ambroise, who was study- 
ing the horizon for a threatening storm-cloud, and 
not the hedge for a threatened invasion, turned on 
his heel and went back to his business. 

By the end of half an hour the banks, well lev- 
elled on each side, supported three planks, more 
carefully tested for strength than the most exacting 
clerk-of-the-works would have required. 

“We might be all five on it at once,” said An- 
dre, “ in case of a bolt for it, like our stampede just 
now ! ” 

So, putting a large stone on it to represent 
Madelon, the other four stood close round, jump- 
ing as high as they could, and coming down flat- 
footed with a shock that would have tried less 
solid materials. Then, notwithstanding Madeleine’s 
assurance that she could cross it blindfold, they 
fixed up a hand rail ; a post at each end, connected 


50 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


by willow- branches bent over and crossing in an X, 
did the job. They left the leaves on the branches, 
and the wreathed verdure gave the bridge such a 
smart and rustic appearance that Madeleine clapped 
her hands with delight. Then the labourers stood 
away, and James, extending his hand with the im- 
portant air he loved to assume, exclaimed : 

“ Now, Madelon, inaugurate the structure.” 

The little girl crossed it, with tiny steps to pro- 
long the pleasure, bending over the still water to 
make an expressive grimace, conveying without 
words her past grudge and her present sense of tri- 
umph ; but before she reached the other bank Pierre 
stopped her by calling out : 

“ Christen it, Madelon ! christen it ! ” 

She reflected a little while, with her finger to 
her lips, then, turning to her friends : 

“Shall it be the Bridge of the Tumble?” she 
asked, archly. 

“No, no!” — was that the remembrance of the 
day that they wished to perpetuate ? 

“Of Friendship — of Concord?” 

No, again. They knew all about their friend- 
ship ; no need to make the bridge record it ; and 
as Madeleine, with a shrug, had no further sugges- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


51 


tion to offer, Andrd exclaimed, in fierce declama- 
tion : 

“Whither does this bridge lead us? To Aunt 
Sew-a-Seam’s. What shall we do there, when we 
have found out the means? We know not, hut 
terrible things, perhaps. I should call this bridge 
the Bridge Terrible ! ” 

And the bridge kept the name, pleasing their 
fancy by its high-sounding threat, though the sign- 
board, hung up every morning on a nail at each 
end, and displaying the name emphasized by two 
exclamation marks, was singularly out of keeping 
with the simple and unpretentious little footway 
and the flowery peacefulness of the shores it con- 
nected. 

Now there was the hedge to mend, screening 
the gap and at the same time leaving a practicable 
and easy means of escape. They hit on a real 
dodge. They cut from the park side some large 
green boughs and wove them with flexible young 
osiers into a hurdle, looking still quite thorny on 
one side. A strong loop in the middle, which gave 
a hold without exposing the hand to scratches, en- 
abled them to pull away this sort of hingeless gate, 
which could be replaced by the aid of a similar 


52 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


handle on the other side. By twining in the twigs 
of the live hedge round the edges, with a little care, 
the effect was Nature itself. The hurdle was made 
high enough to lean against the growing shrubs, 
and to give it strength ; nothing short of close ex- 
amination and sharp eyes could have discovered so 
ingenious a trick. 

Satisfied on this point, they recrossed the bridge 
in procession, and the cagiques, at Madeleine’s en- 
treaty, consented to favour her with a performance 
of the war-dance which, with its queer chanting 
accompaniment, had roused her curiosity to the 
highest pitch behind her screen of shrubs; and 
when she timidly expressed a wish to become a 
red - skin too — inquiring, in her incompetency, 
“ whether there were any women like that,” a mo- 
tion of infinitely higher bearing was put to the 
vote. “ One woman to four wigwams was but 
little.” Whose squaw in particular should she be, 
to keep his weapons bright, his game fresh, and his 
things in order? Why should her care be devoted 
to one rather than to another — to Pierre, rather 
than to Andre ? 

And as, at the mere hint, murmurs at once were 
heard, the speaker went on : 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


53 


“ Then let her be queen instead. The queen, 
who belongs to no one in particular, belongs equal- 
ly to all, and that will be better, as we are so many.” 

Then, as the objection was raised that “a sun- 
god and a queen, too, were too much of a good 
thing,” in a grand burst of enthusiasm it was re- 
solved that the Sun should be dethroned, and that 
a large M should take its place in their war- 
paint, since they could see their little queen on 
wet days as well as fine, which would be a great 
advantage. 

The proclamation was hailed with cheers, and 
Madeleine, dazzled by this new dignity, had not 
recovered breath or words to return thanks, when 
a bell rang at Le Huchoir. It was the first bell. 
The little girl had still a quarter of an hour before 
dinner to efface the traces of the afternoon’s ex- 
ploits, and to convince herself that the head on her 
shoulders was not a new one, glued on, as a doll’s 
head is, but really, truly that of Madeleine Leheurle 
— the little girl who had cried so bitterly yesterday 
and to-day. But she had to go in. 

They exchanged farewells with affectionate grati- 
tude on her part and much excitement on that of 
the boys. They thought that their new friend was 


54 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


returning into real peril, and ten times over, when 
she was half across the bridge, they called her back 
to renew their assurances, to fix their meeting for 
to-morrow at the hour when Madeleine would be 
at liberty, and a hundred other unnecessary details. 
Each of the five was evidently overexcited by the 
events of the day, and Madeleine only put an end 
to the commotion by running off, spurred by the 
thought of what her Aunt Estelle would say if she 
did not find her standing by the dinner-table when 
she entered the dining-room. Without looking 
back, she waved her hand as long as she supposed 
they could see her; then the hurdle was fitted to 
the gap by James, so that you could have sworn 
no one could get through, and the four brothers 
were standing on the bridge, looking at each other 
to read their impressions. But before they had got 
as far as that, one thing had struck them all — the 
state they were in ; and, laughing as heartily as be- 
fore, in the wood, they hurried home to a much- 
needed tub. 

As to Madeleine, with dreamy eyes and wan- 
dering thoughts, she made so strange a figure at 
dinner that day that her aunt, unable to account 
for her looks otherwise than by a fit of unconquer- 


MADELEINE'S RESCUE. 


55 

able drowsiness, sent her to bed as soon as the 
meal was over, to the little girl’s great joy. 

Resting her elbows on the window-sill for a 
few minutes, she gazed at the lights of La Jon- 
chere with the happy glow we feel in beholding 
from afar a place where we know that some one 
is thinking of us and talking of us. Then Aunt 
Estelle’s theory was verified. Intense sleepiness 
overcame the child, and, tumbling into her little 
bed, she was asleep in a moment, with a host of 
dreams already waiting by her pillow to give en- 
chantment to the night as a sequel to the delights 
of the day. It is not for nothing that, after getting 
up in the morning, an orphan and alone in the 
world, one goes to bed possessed of four brothers, 
queen of a fiery race, and demi-goddess of an un- 
known worship. A wiser head than Madeleine’s 
might have been turned that evening. 

The week which followed this memorable day 
was one of the most delightful which the boys on 
one hand or Madeleine on the other had ever spent 
in their lives. To whatever heights of giddy rapture 
the enthusiasm of the four brothers had risen at 
first, it sustained no diminution ; it was with really 
fraternal and affectionate pleasure that they watched 


56 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

the revival of Madeleine’s gaiety and high spirits, 
as a doctor watches the improvement of a patient 
under the remedies he has prescribed. 

Though often rough to each other, with her 
they were considerate and gentle, as with some 
fragile and precious object ; and, but for the sweet 
nature of their little queen, she might have been 
spoiled as soon as cured by their treatment. 

To begin with, Madeleine had been taken all 
over La Jonchere, and into all its interesting nooks 
and corners : the lofts, the stables, and a tumble- 
down little hunting-lodge in the wood, half in ruins, 
but the special and exclusive domain of the boys, 
who spent hours of enchantment there. Outside, it 
was very dilapidated ; the stucco of the pillars was 
green with mildew and dropping in large flakes, but 
inside there was a room lined from floor to ceiling 
with wainscotting, and still water-tight, with huge 
cupboards in the walls, almost like hiding-places; 
windows in niches so deep that they formed little 
cells; and, in a round turret to the left, a portion of 
a winding stair, which broke off half-way up, and re- 
mained in perpetuity a standing challenge, since it 
was impossible to scale the height. 

This was one of the places where they had pro- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


5 7 


posed to Madeleine that she should take refuge 
after her disappearance ; but when she assured them 
that if she spent one night alone she would be found 
dead of fright in the morning, the lodge was left to 
its usual function — that, namely, of housing every- 
thing which Madame Dacaube refused to admit 
into the house, and being the scene of all their 
noisy games. 

On the second day, Madame Dacaube made in- 
quiries. “ Who was the little girl she had seen 
about with the four boys?” 

“Our little neighbour, Mademoiselle de Bre- 
vonnes’s niece,” her sons answered in chorus; and 
Madame Dacaube, satisfied that Aunt Estelle had 
allowed the child to come, troubled herself no more 
about the matter beyond adding a fifth share to 
their afternoon meal at four o’clock, and giving to 
the eldest boy many injunctions as to gentleness 
and courtesy, which were quite superfluous in their 
present state of mind. 

To Madeleine, the torments of impatience were 
now added to those of dulness, as she sat sewing. 
What were they doing over there ? How soon 
might she join them ? If she kept them waiting 
too long, might they not be off without her? Then 

5 * 


58 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

it occurred to her that she might do beforehand, in 
her room, quite early, the task she would be set that 
day, just as she learned a page or two of the cate- 
chism which she tucked under her pillow over- 
night. So, to the amazement of Mademoiselle Es- 
telle, within a quarter of an hour of having set the 
child a long seam, she found the work finished and 
folded, the thread, thimble, and scissors in their 
place, and Madeleine — vanished. After a minute’s 
consideration she explained the matter to her satis- 
faction. In her constant depression and absence 
of mind she had lost all count of time. She had 
mistaken the hour for the half-hour, no doubt. Be- 
sides, she had always felt sure that, by dint of stitch- 
ing, Madeleine would acquire skill and a liking for 
work. She had always told her so, and it had come 
true — that was all. 

The little girl, meanwhile, taking advantage of 
the neglect which had at first caused her such pain, 
but which now gave her liberty, was running in the 
midst of her knights, her hair tossing on the wind. 

To begin with, they had only to amuse them- 
selves — in that all were agreed — and they did it to 
the top of their bent. One day an old horse, turned 
out to grass as past work, was mounted by the 









ovVVV 


mmm 


mm 

W//////////////1 


The four brothers gave a circus performance. 


























6o 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


boys in turn, all being good riders, and they gave 
a circus performance, quite bewildering the poor 
beast by the variety of their exactions and at- 
tempts. Or, again, they would arrange a “fishing 
party,” in a weedy, green puddle, dignified as “ the 
Lake,” where the catch consisted of leeches or tad- 
poles. 

On the first day the artistes , painted, spangled, 
and plumed, hid in the lodge, emerging one by one 
to increase the effect, and banged holes in paper 
hoops, without allowing old Flammeche — Flam- 
meche was their steed — to pause for an instant in 
his dull trot ; then they mounted him two, three, 
even all four at once, to form historical or symbol- 
ical groups ; attempted — nay, more wonderful still, 
achieved — standing in a pyramid, and other acro- 
batic tricks of thrilling boldness, and finally dazzled 
Madeleine by a series of familiar and unknown con- 
juring tricks. 

Nothing could be prettier than the little girl’s 
simple good faith and unqualified admiration ; and 
when the performance was ended, one of the boys 
expressed for all the pleasure they took in her 
readiness to be amused in the words they repeated, 
more or less, every day. 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


6l 


“ How nice it is to have a girl friend who knows 
nothing and likes everything ! ” This, in fact, is a 
pleasure beyond any other to those who feel it, for 
it is often far more delightful to give enjoyment to 
others than to find it for one’s self. 

In the fishing party they had quite a different 
get-up : canvas trowsers turned up to their knees, 
straw hats, and landing-nets that they had brought 
home from the seaside. 

After letting off the water by a little channel 
from the pool into another puddle, they valiantly 
paddled into the mud, the nets they pushed before 
them filling rapidly with water-weeds and flowers 
and reeds, and of half a dozen glittering and 
frisky minnows, with tadpoles and frogs which 
skipped at the bottom. But they never lost heart, 
and the fishing went on with the illusory hope of 
hauling out a certain carp — said to be a hundred 
years old, but more probably mythical — which two 
out of the four were always ready to swear they 
could feel against their feet. Then the torpid 
leeches in the mud woke up ; one of them nipped 
the little brown leg it found on its way, and the 
victim’s outcry was the signal for retreat. If the 
leeches made a sortie, all was over! 


62 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


From the muddy pool the four pairs of legs 
were transferred to running water, where the nets 
too were washed, and the half-dozen little fish, 
divested of all unpleasant adjuncts, were laid on a 
handful of wet grass, to be carried off to the 
kitchen and fried for dinner, in spite of the 
cook’s shrugs and undisguised contempt — at least, 
this had hitherto been their fate, but to-day Made- 
leine’s ready pity had interceded for them. 

“It was so sad to see them wriggling there, with 
desperate gaping mouths, and their tiny silver scales 
coming off on one’s fingers and sparkling like dia- 
monds.” 

Few sacrifices could have compared, to the boys, 
with this release. And yet the grass was surren- 
dered to the little girl, and the fry restored to the 
pool, where they disappeared with prompt and sig- 
nificant ingratitude. 



James was up to the waist in water. 


CHAPTER V. 

Shooting the rapids. — Phanlaire and Phanlonde. — In honour of Uncle 
Auguste. — A fatal kiss. 

Then the crowning pleasure of all was proposed 
to Madeleine, and the boys’ boat, scrubbed, baled 
out, and dressed, with a covered seat in the stern, 
was set afloat. 

Nothing could look more trim than the Phan- 
londe before the adventures which invariably re- 
sulted from a trip in her, as she lay rocking at her 
moorings by a new chain from the shore. 

Down at the bottom of the park the little 
stream which bounded it seemed made on purpose 
to give her a ride ; it was not deep, shaded by trees 

(63) 


64 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

which grew on each side like an avenue, and had 
little creeks of clean sand forming harbours at 
short intervals. On coming out of the copse they 
found themselves with a wide meadow on either 
hand, one very perceptibly higher than the other: 
thus, within a very short distance, the water fell in 
a series of little cascades, affording an opportunity, 
unmatched perhaps in the world, for pranks in 
their wildest moments. 

Pushed off the top by the help of two long 
poles, the Phanlonde shot without stopping — acci- 
dent apart — down no less than eight waterfalls and 
a few breaks of smooth water between, with a 
vehemence of dash, of imprudence and improba- 
bility, at which the four boys were quite beside 
themselves. It was like a flight in a swing, or 
more like the descent in a toboggan, with the 
blinding sheen of the sun on the water on both 
sides, and the exciting chance of eight possible up- 
sets, which they counted aloud as they escaped each 
time — one, two, three, sometimes as many as seven 
— when the shout of triumph was stopped by the 
loud splash of the boat as it heeled over, and the 
cries of bewilderment which the water checked as 
it filled their open mouths. In a twinkling the 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 65 

boys were on their feet, James up to the waist in 
water, Jacques up to his chin, one of his elder 
brothers always looking after him the first thing ; 
then the Phanlonde was hauled up on the bank, 
and cries and reproaches began. 

“Andre handled the gaff like a cripple! James 
stood like a boy swinging a censer! No wonder 
we came to grief, with Jacques’s shouts and Pierre’s 
capers ! A boat is not solid ground ! ” 

And so forth ; till, having blown off the steam 
and shaken off the water as best they might, the 
Phanlonde set off up-stream at a tearing pace, 
tugged along the bank by eight arms, and, once 
more afloat in the upper pool, began again its 
erratic descent with varying success. 

This they called “ shooting the rapids,” and it 
was one of their favourite sports — a sport diversi- 
fied, it must be owned, by incidents as absurd as 
they were unforeseen. Once Pierre, perched too 
far back on the stern, had been dropped off by a 
jerk, sitting with his legs dangling on a stone over 
which the water fell, and had been got off with the 
greatest difficulty, as the little boy obstinately re- 
fused to jump down, and the current was too strong 
for him to wade up. Another time, Andrd was 


66 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


caught under the boat, without his brothers having 
at first perceived it, bonnetted as by a huge dish- 
cover, and expecting to be suffocated — and so on. 

Now, “should they take Madeleine to shoot the 
rapids ? ” The question was much discussed. The 
two little boys were for it ; the two eldest, conscious 
of responsibility, were against, and voted that she 
should sit on the bank, a mere spectator. But then 
the little girl, who had caught the daring spirit of 
her valorous comrades, begged so earnestly, the 
water happened to be so shallow that day, and her 
frock so easy to dry in the sun, as she declared, that 
they decided to attempt it just once, if it were a 
success, and to repeat the experiment if it were a 
failure. 

“ For, you see,” said James, very logically, “if we 
^succeed, you will have seen what you want to see ; 
if, on the contrary, we are upset, and you are not 
too much frightened, once wet through, you can 
but try again.” 

By rare good luck the trial trip went well ; the 
Phanlonde shot like an arrow over the eight obsta- 
cles without a check, and then, forgetful of their 
vows, the party must needs tempt Fate a second 
time. 



The Phanlonde cleared the obstacles 





68 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


“ Since luck was in their favour, they must take 
advantage of it,” Madeleine urged. “And you said 
we were to play some foolish tricks to improve 
me!” 

It need hardly be said that the vein of luck on 
which the little girl relied soon gave out ; the feat 
was but half accomplished for the third time when 
the expected disaster happened. At the same in- 
stant Madeleine felt herself seized by each leg and 
arm, and was on her feet again before she had even 
thought out the mental “There we go!” which had 
flashed upon her as the boat turned over. But the 
gallant crew were in a state of great agitation. 

“ She will take cold — it will make her ill — she 
will be scolded.” This amusement, foolish enough 
for boys, if they were to believe the lectures they 
had had after previous catastrophes, was sheer mad- 
ness for a girl ; they were idiots to have listened 
to her ! They were in a state of despair, which 
Madeleine could only remedy by asserting her 
rights. 

“ A pretty queen indeed, who was not allowed 
to have her own way without a scolding to end 
with ! ” And her subjects were reduced to silence. 

Then, turning each portion of their persons to 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 69 

the sunshine in succession, they lay spread out on 
the grass till Madelon was presentable enough to 
go home. 

In the course of that morning she learned the 
historical origin of the name “ Phanlonde,” which 
had always amused her by its punning, sonorous 
meaning* 

“ Why Phanlonde ? ” cried the boys in chorus — 
“why, because of Phanlaire, Madelon, of course!” 

And as the explanation explained nothing, and 
the little girl stared wide-eyed, they remembered 
Phanlaire was before her time, to be sure. 

Then they told her the story. 

There had been a splendid kite made by their 
uncle the previous spring — a kite that wculd have 
lifted a man, Pierre declared — all over blue and 
gold, which, as it fell, looked like a piece of the 
sky coming down with the stars, and which had a 
tail it had taken no less than eight days to balance. 

“Balance the tail of a kite!” Madeleine, per- 
haps, did not know what a business it was to get 
the tail of a kite just right. Their Uncle Auguste 


* Phanlonde (fend l’onde), cut-water. Phanlaire (fend 
Pair), cut-air.— Translator’s note. 


70 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


had calculated it all by tables and formulas, just as 
he did for the boats he planned. And it was in 
the pride of triumph, on the day when the kite shot 
straight up into space, that he called it the Phanlaire. 

Then, after he had left, one day when there 
was a high wind, the boys had thought of fastening 
the Phanlaire to the bow of their boat, then called 
the Jeune Fame, in the hope that its soaring wings 
might carry them along the stream without oars or 
paddles. But events turned out otherwise : the 
Phanlaire, which pulled tremendously, suddenly 
broke the line, and, flying off at a speed of no 
one knew how many miles an hour, vanished so 
completely that no trace of it had ever been seen 
again — not a fragment to show where it fell. 

So, in memory of this great disaster, the sym- 
bolical name had descended to the boat. 

“ And so, you see But are you dry, Made- 

Ion?” 

Yes, Madelon was dry, at any rate to the eye, 
and she got home that day without difficulties, thus 
crowning the happy hours she had spent. 

That very morning, as it happened, Uncle Au- 
guste, the creator of the Phanlaire, was expected 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


7 1 

at La Jonchere. He was Madame Dacaube’s 
younger brother, beloved by all alike, an engineer 
who was building some docks on the Mediterranean. 
He always spent his leave, however short, under her 
roof, and a telegram, the previous evening, had an- 
nounced his advent. He was only passing through 
on business, and would breakfast with his sister ; 
that was all, this time. But the news had neverthe- 
less thrown the whole house into joyful excitement. 

His favourite dishes were simmering in the 
kitchen ; in the drawing-room Madame Dacaube 
was arranging flowers, and out of doors the gar- 
dener, who had for some days been busy painting 
a paling, hastened to finish the work, that the pea- 
green perspective of the fence might be complete. 
Hurried as he was, as ill-luck would have it, the 
cook, in quest of fruit and vegetables, came to dis- 
turb him, so that he had to leave his pot and 
brushes for a minute ; and, for worse luck still, the 
boys, sadly in want of occupation while waiting for 
the train to come in, passed that way. 

They had been greatly amused by the old man’s 
hurry, and to snatch up his brush and go on with 
his task was the work of a moment. Like saints 
in the legends, he would fancy that some passing 


72 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


angel, touched by his eager desire that all should 
be complete, had finished it for him. 

Each in turn daubed and splashed, varying the 
designs with which they decorated the white palings, 
like fallen angels, scorning symmetry, till a wild 
idea flashed through Andre’s brain, and, plunging 
the brush as it was handed to him deep into the 
paint-pot, with one sweep he drew a long stripe 
down Jacques’s canvas blouse — he happening to be 
next him — exclaiming in a tone of inspiration : 

“ Everything shall be green for Uncle Au- 
guste ! ” 

He was met, indeed, with outcries and protests, 
proceeding for the most part from Jacques; but 
the idea of four nephews turned into parrots, as 
Andre eagerly explained, was too deliciously hu- 
morous for serious resistance. The two lookers-on, 
at any rate, were on his side, and the victim could 
only wail and complain with increased energy as 
the thick, cold fluid trickled down his neck, but 
without any effect on the pitiless decorator. His 
hair brushed up, a dab on each cheek and on his 
forehead, his hands with all the fingers spread out 
— the effect was so burlesque and strange as to cast 
the war-paint of the cagiques quite into the shade ; 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


73 


and his three brothers, dying of laughter, could only 
find voice enough to say, again and again : 

“You will see us! you will see us!” while 
Jacques, anxious indeed to “see” by-and-by, but for 
the moment greasy, sticky, and exasperated, passing 
from mere complaint to a state of fury, snatched up 
the brush Andre had laid down, eager to produce 
with his own hand a duplicate of the grotesque 
object he was himself. Andre had not the faintest 
intention of evading his fate, and had already turned 
his back, when a fifth person appeared on the scene. 
Madeleine, set free a little earlier than usual, and 
having heard nothing of Uncle Auguste’s intended 
arrival, came running up. 

At a glance she took in the picture : the three 
eldest crying with laughter, Jacques also crying, but 
without laughter, and metamorphosed into a hide- 
ous sort of monster, like a monkey with a human 
physiognomy — a victim and his torturers, beyond 
a doubt ; and without an instant’s hesitation she 
threw her arms around the little fellow’s neck, ex- 
claiming : 

“ My poor darling ! what have they been doing 
to you ? ” 

A cry of dismay, in three parts, greeted this 
6 


74 - 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


proceeding, but not soon enough to stop her, and 
Madeleine, starting back, stood speechless. 

From top to hem her frock of white striped 
dimity displayed large patches of green in various 
devices, jagged and scalloped, like the butterflies 
produced by inking and folding a piece of note- 
paper. On the spot where, in the fervour of her 
embrace, she had clasped the paint-brush to her 
bosom as well as Jacques, a little stream began 
dribbling to the edge, spreading on each side, and 
the sleeves, set into little flat wristbands, were like 
nothing in the world but huge lettuce leaves — the 
heart-leaves, which are shaded off and crumpled, and 
in places almost white. 

This was a catastrophe too great for words ! 
Madeleine’s pride broke down, and she burst into 
sobs, her tears running down to her lips, which 
were green from kissing Jacques, staining her hand- 
kerchief, and, with her handkerchief, her eyes, whose 
flood-gates were opened to rivers of tears, possessed 
of but one idea — that she must go back to the 
house, and of the formidable thought of her meet- 
ing with Aunt Estelle. 

Like Rachel mourning for her children, who 
would not be comforted, Madelon would listen to 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


7 5 


no one. Advice, promises, encouragement, offers 
to confront the enemy in her place — all were as 
nothing to her in the horror of this ruined frock, 
which her aunt must see beyond a doubt, which 
would lead to questions and possibly to explana- 
tions, from which she foresaw, as in a dismal pro- 
cession, a whole concatenation of possible mis- 
fortunes. 

“ Come home with us ; they will clean you up,” 
said Andre, shocked at the fatal results of his device. 

“No, no!” said James; “run home up to your 
own room and change your frock — I suppose you 
have two — and roll up this one and bring it back, 
and Nanette will clean it and iron it to look like 
new.” 

“To risk meeting your aunt, both going and 
coming, is too much,” said Andrd. “ Have you 
no nurse who is good to you, and who will do it, 
and never tell ? ” 

But Madelon was past knowing. She could 
not say the names of the maids, nor judge of the 
measure of their kindness. James’s motion carried 
the day. The boys would reconnoitre, or even risk 
an illegal incursion into the garden of Le Huchoir, 
to set a watch at intervals along Madeleine’s way, 


76 MADELEINE'S RESCUE. 

and they would warn her by a cry of any sign of 
danger ; and, all these precautions having been 
taken, the little girl was to make a rush for it, and 
so effect her escape. 




Aunt Estelle drew back with uplifted hands. 

CHAPTER VI. 


Aunt Estelle and Madeleine. — The final catastrophe. — Aunt Sew-a- 
Seam’s intrenchments. — The scaling of the turret. 

It must, in fact, have been by inconceivable ill- 
luck that Aunt Estelle, discerned from afar by the 
sharp eyes of the four lads, should suddenly step 
forth in the short space which Madelon had to 
traverse at the back of the house ; and even if she 
did, the character of the damage might save the 
little girl. 

“ She will take her for a shrub,” said Pierre, 
laughing, but without making her laugh. All that 
was needed was presence of mind and a bright look- 
out — the first essential in such undertakings; and 

the boys were prepared to do their utmost. 

(77) 




78 


MADELEINE'S RESCUE. 


Unfortunately, Fate was decidedly adverse that 
day, and would have it that Uncle Auguste, who 
was expected by the eleven-o’clock train, had taken 
the train, arriving at ten ; that an obliging neigh- 
bour’s dog-cart had saved him the delay of waiting 
for the carriage from Les Jonchere’s or a long walk, 
and that, on a sudden, at the very moment when 
Madeleine’s reviving spirits allowed of her taking 
part in the discussion, a voice of thunder made the 
whole party start and turn round, by exclaiming : 

“ Mercy on us ! What have these little wretches 
been up to now ? ” 

It was Uncle Auguste announcing himself in 
this formidable fashion, and his nephews, clinging 
in a bunch to his hand — all but Jacques, whose 
condition necessitated a certain reserve — had not 
found words to explain the situation before Made- 
leine was out of sight. 

Seized with a panic at this terrible address, with- 
out looking to see whence it came, who would re- 
ply to it, and what might come of it, with a vague 
idea that it was the voice of Divine Justice which 
spoke, and that Aunt Estelle in her drawing-room 
must hear it as she herself had heard it, Madeleine 
had flown off, forgetting prudence, precautions, every- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


79 

thing ; crossed the bridge in hot haste, pushed down 
the hurdle without stopping to replace it, and, quite 
out of breath, ran up the open path straight to 
the spot where her aunt was picking the caterpillars 
off her roses, whom she could see, indeed, a hun- 
dred yards off, and whom only the sound of this 
galloping retreat could have roused from an occu- 
pation so absorbing. 

At the first glance she fancied some accident 
must have happened, and had hastily inquired, 
“What is the matter?” Then her alarm had 
turned to indignation, and, starting back with up- 
lifted hands to avoid touching the child, in all her 
reverence for immaculate cleanliness, which in the 
course of years had become a perfect mania, she 
altered her question to — . 

“How did you get into such a state? You 
are a disgrace ! ” 

To which Madeleine, always incapable of false- 
hood, and at the moment quite past finding any 
excuses to soften or adorn her confession, replied 
unhesitatingly : 

“It came off Jacques, Aunt Estelle.” 

“Off Jacques?” 

“Jacques — Jacques Dacaube — next door.” 


8o 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


“Next door!” 

And, in answer to Mademoiselle de Brevonnes’s 
mystified astonishment, the whole story had to be 
told, revealing — as Madeleine had foreseen with 
distrustful presentiment — the whole secret of the 
past week. 

The Dacaubes! The four Dacaubes ! Those 
atrocious little scamps who disturbed all the coun- 
try round with their shouts and pranks! For a 
week past Madeleine had been fraternizing with 
the Dacaubes! She had clandestinely made a gap 
through the hedge to get out and join them — and 
for a whole week, from morning till night, she had 
hidden all she was doing ! Was it. possible ? Such 
a thing was unheard of! 

In her wrath language failed her; she could 
at last only say the same words again and again, 
clasping her hands, unclasping them, and dropping 
them with a gesture which came to the same thing, 
and seemed to sum up the end of everything : 

“ A little girl ! — a little girl ! ” — and she fixed her 
eyes on Madeleine — “a little girl!” 

And by degrees her escapade seemed to the 
child a portentous crime, crushing her with dis- 
grace, and for which there was no excuse, till her 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


8l 


aunt, recovering herself a little, proceeded to cross- 
question her closely. Then the little girl, driven 
to account for the preposterous and ill-starred im- 
pulse that had led her to such behaviour, remem- 
bered all her griefs and forlornness, all the melan- 
choly story which was her own, and that she had 
related in the wood to the sympathetic audience 
she was condemned for seeking. Suddenly she 
poured it all out to her aunt, as she had done to 
her friends. 

“ Alone — she was always alone — it was so very 
dull ! ” and in her naive way she told all her woes. 

Amazed at first, and then touched by this in- 
nocent lament, Mademoiselle de Brevonnes heard 
the child’s story with a vague suspicion that she 
herself, perhaps, was somewhat to blame in the 
matter, and that, at any rate, there was much truth 
in it, when a luckless argument occurred to Made- 
leine. 

“If you were a little girl, Aunt Estelle,” she 
said, trying to explain her feelings ; and when 
Aunt Estelle replied that she, too, in her time, 
had been a little girl — “ yes,” Madeleine went on, 
with a flash ; “ but you had two brothers, who no 
doubt loved you then ” 


82 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


Two brothers ! The old maid saw herself as in 
a mirage running with them under the groves of 
Brevonnes, one far ahead of her, whom she could 
never catch ; the other, much younger, who, on the 
contrary, was in pursuit of her, all three united then, 
as they had ever been, not merely in their child- 
hood, but in riper age. And then the last words 
struck her too : 

“Who loved you then, no doubt!” 

Loved you then ! Then it was, indeed, all 
over and gone ! And this child could remind her 
of the past, to show her how desolate the present 
was ! 

At this unfortunate speech her rage boiled again, 
and, without listening to another word, she ex- 
claimed with violence : 

“ Go up to your room, get yourself clean, and 
stay there!” And, as Madeleine stood petrified by 
this sudden revulsion, she went on : “To stitch, 
to obey, and to be silent is more often the lot 
of little girls than you seem to imagine ; and just 
see the mischief that has come already of your 
knowing those children!” — with a world of con- 
tempt in these two words. “ A week ago you would 
never, never have dared to speak to me so ! ” 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 83 

Then she strode away into her own morning- 
room, the scene of her hours of melancholy, where 
no one was ever admitted, while Madeleine, rooted 
where she stood, had recourse to her only relief: the 
springs of her tears, dried up for a few days, were 
unsealed again, and once more she wept like a naiad. 

At the Dacaubes, meanwhile, uneasiness pre- 
vailed. In spite of Uncle Auguste and the charms 
of his presence, not a quarter of an hour passed by 
that day without one or another of the boys run- 
ning to the little bridge to reconnoitre the ground. 

Jacques, having been duly scrubbed, was at first 
doomed to do penance till the next day, but he 
was exculpated by Andre’s confession, and the latter, 
on his part, pardoned at the intercession of Uncle 
Auguste; and Jacques had even penetrated into 
the shrubbery of Le Huchoir, trusting for safety to 
the chance of being taken for a shrub, which he 
had promised Madeleine earlier in the day. And, 
indeed, without being taken for a vegetable, merely 
with the general hue of green, which soap and 
brushing had not yet availed to remove from his 
face and hair, he was certain to scare all beholders, 
like an escaped monkey or a freshly unearthed 


84 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

ghost making an unexpected appearance in an in- 
habited spot. But neither in the garden paths nor 
about the house had he caught a glimpse of Made- 
leine ; a terror of awful things being done in secret 
weighed upon them more and more. 

Then, when dinner was over and it was dark, 
and their uncle was gone, as they went back, all 
four, once more to the Bridge Terrible, unwilling to 
go to bed in such uncertainty, a cry broke from 
them. The gap, strongly and effectually closed, 
disclosed no trace of a way through. The hurdle, 
flung over to their bank, showed that the famous 
trick had been discovered, and a perfect rampart of 
thorny brambles, a cheval-de-frise , facing La Jon- 
chere, displayed such humiliating precautions as 
country folks take against tramps who steal fruit 
or poultry. 

The drama, then, was all over ; it was not, as 
they had tried to hope, for fear of their uncle that 
Madeleine had not come out again. She could not ! 

At once there rose a hubbub of suppositions, ex- 
clamations, and lamentations. 

“ What could she have done to Madeleine ? 
That great, cruel woman ! ” 

And, carried away by their imagination, they 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 85 

pictured to themselves tortures and impossible hor- 
rors, with the poor child struggling and calling on 
her friends for help. To think that they could do 
nothing ! 

If they disturbed the thorny defences by so 
much as a hand-breadth, it would justify the pre- 
cautions taken against them and make Madelon’s 
position worse than before. For evidently she was 
not merely being punished for her spoiled frock ; all 
intercourse with them was to be cut off — the clos- 
ing of the gap showed that plainly enough. 

For the present there was nothing for it but 
to retire in silence, and with hanging heads and 
heavy hearts they went home, not even reproach- 
ing Andre for the practical joke, which they were 
all conscious of having accepted, and burdened with 
that fear of the unknown which in all things, from 
the least to the greatest, is the worst of all forms 
of dread. 

Next morning, the very first thing, they were 
at the hedge again. Nothing had changed since 
the night before. There was not a peep-hole, not 
a sign to betray that the little girl had been there 
or had tried to get through. The brambles still 
brandished their thorns, as brambles sure of their 


86 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


rights ; and daylight only enabled them to see 
more clearly how thick the rampart was. It was 
a perfect fortification, and the four brothers must 
have been regarded as a formidable foe for such 
strong measures to have been adopted. The only 
thing to be done was to establish telegraphic com- 
munications by signalling to Madeleine — unless, in- 
deed, if she were forbidden to look out of window — 
and the choice of a station would be a matter of no 
small difficulty. By a most unfortunate chance 
Madeleine’s bedroom window on the first floor 
looked out on a tall cedar-tree just opposite. It 
was therefore physically impossible to see it through 
the branches from the park of La Jonchere — unless, 
indeed, from the hunting lodge. The idea was 
scarcely formed when the boys set off at a gallop. 

In front of the lodge, in fact, a vista had been 
cut, giving a wide view over the country. If, as 
seen across the avenue, the little girl’s window was 
not screened by the cedar, and, above all, if they 
could but climb, as they had so often longed to do, 
to the top of the little tower, distance was defied, 
and the four pairs of eyes directed on Le Huchoir 
felt sure that they could understand their friend’s 
least signal. But there was that winding stair, de- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 87 

stroyed at about two thirds up. Many a time ere 
now had they tried to make up for that missing 
flight by prodigies of gymnastics, in which their 
daring and agility had always been defeated. 

But now there was more in the balance than 
the mere triumph of success; Madelon was to be 
succoured, and, seated in council on the steps, the 
boys laid their plans. The break in the stairs was 
curiously neat, between one step and the next. 
The pillar round which the spiral had turned stood 
up uninjured, as straight and as polished as a quarry- 
pole. There was not a chip on which to rest the 
foot. It did not look as though the upper portion 
of the stair had fallen through decay, but as if it 
had been destroyed on purpose by the hand of man, 
to keep some secret hidden up above, and every- 
thing had been removed which could give access 
to it. As to a ladder, that was out of the question. 
At the top, between two little columns which had 
once formed a doorway, there was a flag-stone that 
tilted as soon as they laid a ladder against it, as the 
boys had already proved, and the risk was too great 
of seeing it fall before or during the ascent. 

But one way remained, and that had been often 
tried: to swarm up it — arms, feet, and knees — up 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


this polished column higher than the rocking ledge, 
if, indeed, propitious Fate preserved it from drop- 
ping on the head of the climber, and then to vault 
over it on to the platform at the top. Having 
once achieved this, to fasten up the knotted rope 
out of their gymnasium and thus secure a means 
of communication, either from the inside or by the 
outer wall, would be mere child’s play, fn short, as 
Pierre put it, what they had to do was to “bring 
down the prize ” — a sweet little prize with blue 
eyes and fair hair ; and it would be a pity indeed 
if one of them could not succeed in what the peas- 
ant boys accomplished with ease every year at the 
village festival. 

As to their former failures, they had not set to 
work the right way. The logic of this assertion 
seemed indisputable ; they now had only to con- 
sider the steps to be taken, and to choose which 
of them should attempt it. 

Jacques was too little, and at once discarded. 
Andr£, capital in feats requiring strength, lost his 
breath and wasted energy in everything needing 
agility. James, whose stature and square shoulders 
made him invaluable as the base of a ladder, could 
not be spared from supporting the other two lads, 



Pierre began his climb. 


7 





9 o 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


and so giving the climber a starting-point as high 
up as possible. 

Thus there remained Pierre, active, lean, and 
supple, with admirable confidence of success, and 
by common consent he was chosen to make the 
attempt. Throwing off his jacket and shoes, he 
rubbed his hands in the dust to prevent their slip- 
ping, as he gravely asserted ; he scrambled up like 
a cat by James to Andre and by Andre on to the 
shoulders of little Jacques, who held on bravely at 
the top; then, curling his legs round the column, 
with his knees set in as if he were riding a fiery 
charger, and his arms knit, he began his climb. One 
after the other the three heads below him turned 
upward, anxiously watching his movements. 

He was getting on — gaining ground — almost 
half-way up. Then, on a sudden, he began to slip, 
and in a flash he had glided from top to bottom, 
his knees, up to his chin, hard set in a vain effort 
which could not check his downfall, and looking 
like one of those fantastic writhing devils which 
perch on the gargoyles of ancient churches, such 
as Uncle Etienne had often drawn to amuse Made- 
leine. 

With a little bad language appropriate to the 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


91 


occasion, he picked himself up, shaking his fist 
at the polished slide which offered such deter- 
mined resistance to his ascent, and which, it need 
hardly be said, remained none the less slippery and 
obdurate. Then the lads lent their shoulders again ; 
Pierre climbed up from James to Andre, from An- 
dre to Jacques, and began once more. 




They all waved their hats. 


CHAPTER VII. 

Telegraphy by sight and hearing. — A great resolve. — An elaborate 
toilet.— Face to face with Aunt Sew-a-Seam. 

Pierre’s desire to succeed was now mingled with 
the rage one feels against things — mere things — when 
they resist ; he would unhesitatingly have signed a 
compact with any one who would have given him, 
instead of his ten little nails, ten talons which he 
could have set into the stone, even at the cost of 
keeping them for the rest of his life. In spite of 
the desiccating treatment, his hands grew moist 
and slipped on the polished roundness as though 
he had soaped them, and his arms ached with 
cramp. 


(92) 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


93 

This time, however, he was safe — half the climb 
was done — two thirds — and the spectators, with 
their noses in the air at the risk of having those 
ornaments of the face broken, dared neither breathe 
nor speak. One by one their noisy shouts of en- 
couragement died away. At this stage they could 
not utter a sudden word or cry that might startle 
Pierre into a false move. And nothing was audible 
but his breathing, shorter and harder as he got 
higher, or a murmured comment in broken phrases 
by which the boys expressed their agonized sus- 
pense. 

“ Oh, if he should slip now ! ” 

The horror of the idea had no doubt struck 
Pierre as it did the others, for, with miraculous sup- 
pleness, he knit his legs still farther round the col- 
umn, so that beyond the point where they crossed 
they almost curled round a second time ; and how 
the boy did it was incomprehensible. They seemed 
one with the column — so much so, that, in his ex- 
citement at the sense of security — feeling as if he 
were soldered there — Pierre threw up his arms, 
waving them to display his strength — an act of bra- 
vado which sent a shudder of dread through the 
three below, and resulted in the beginning of a 


94 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


slide which, if once fairly started, could not be 
checked in its velocity. However, by throwing his 
arms around the stone in an embrace which was 
tender only in appearance, the rash boy saved him- 
self, and, more cautiously as he neared the top, he 
climbed on. 

Towards the end the pillar was rough — the re- 
verse of what they had always supposed ; fragments 
of stone still projected into space, or they had left 
chinks as they fell. If he could reach this stage he 
was safe; and Pierre wriggled up, stretching and 
twisting like a snake, with slow advance, like the 
elastic movement of rings, hand over hand — as if 
he were stalking some living prey to be seized by 
stratagem. Then, with a spurt, he caught on to 
one of the knobs, and, springing lightly, got his foot 
into a chink. He gave a shout of triumph ; this 
time he was master of the old turret ! As nimble 
as a cat, he pulled himself up, inch by inch, past 
the rocking sill without even touching it, and 
leaped clear across it on to the roof. A cheer that 
shook the walls responded from below, and then 
the three boys, hustling and pushing, rushed out. 

Pierre, screening his eyes with his hand, was 
gazing towards Le Huchoir and studying the 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


95 


aspect of affairs when they looked up from be- 
neath him, and at the first moment their calcula- 
tions were justified, for he shouted at the top of 
his voice : “ I see her ! She is at the window ! She 
is crying, with such a big pocket-handkerchief ! ” 

This report — given Madelon and the use she 
habitually made of her eyes — was not surprising ; 
but the “big pocket-handkerchief” was a most pa- 
thetic detail. They felt as if she were lost in there, 
so small and so miserable, and this fanned the 
ardour of the little party. 

Pierre promptly unrolled the ball of string he 
had taken up in his pocket, and hauled it in with 
the rope to which James fastened it. But they im- 
mediately perceived that they must give up all 
hope of scaling the stronghold from the outside, 
for by the time the cord was securely lashed the 
lowest knot hung high out of reach. So they went 
back into the turret, while Pierre recommenced his 
task, fastening the cord to an iron stanchion of 
great strength which remained firm, by good luck, 
between the two pillars of the doorway. He lashed 
it with a sailor’s knot that he had learned from his 
uncle, and tried it himself, letting it hang and jump- 
ing off with all his weight. Then he threw it down, 


9 6 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

and James and Andre below, tugging with all their 
might, proved its strength ; and then, being satisfied, 
they sent up Jacques first, his brothers holding the 
rope to keep it from swinging. Next went Andrd, 
and James last, all three landing with a leap to 
avoid the loose stone, and running round at once 
to. the parapet at the edge. 

Pierre’s description was exact. Among the 
swaving rose-boughs that framed Madeleine’s win- 
dow they could see a little yellow head half hidden 
in a vast white cloth — a towel rather than a hand- 
kerchief — and their shouts failed to make her look 
up. Still, she must be made to see them, and, join- 
ing their voices in a sort of war-whoop they were 
wont to use, they raised a “Coo-oo-ch!” that 
might have rung out from France to China, and 
that made the little girl jump. 

Uncertain where to look, she gazed about her; 
then her eye pierced the avenue to the lodge, and 
a smile, broad enough to make its way as far as 
their shout, lighted up her tear-swollen face. 

In response to her greeting of waving hands, 
such rags of hats as the boys could boast of were 
flourished in the air, and after this pantomime a 
dialogue was begun as best it might, Jacques’s shrill 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


97 


voice, the easiest to hear at a distance, reaching her 
watchful ear. Only, as she explained by expressive 
gestures indicating the rooms beneath, she could 
not reply to their questions in the same way ; she 
would answer by signs. 

And whether it was that she had a special apti- 
tude for this mode of communication, or that neces- 
sity lent her skill, she managed to tell them all they 
wanted to know. 

“ Did Aunt Estelle know all ? ” This was the 
first question put by Jacques, to which Madeleine 
replied by despairing and emphatic nods of affirma- 
tion. 

“ What did she say ? What did she do ? ” was 
the next inquiry, and Madeleine’s answer was a 
pantomime of rage, with furious looks and arms 
like a windmill-sail. But then, as the boys in their 
eagerness to be doing something, asked, “ What 
can we do next ? ” despair had once more overcome 
the little girl, and, picking up her enormous hand- 
kerchief, which had fallen on the balcony and 
was drying in the breeze, she buried her face in it 
again. 

This was all her rhetoric. 

Her friends, in dismay at first, tried to yell words 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


of comfort. But this was not practical ; so, having 
decided in committee that the idea they had dis- 
carded the first day as too greatly fraught with 
peril, so long as peace subsisted, of going to see 
Aunt Sew-a-Seam and giving her a piece of their 
mind, was now the only thing to be done, they 
shouted a last communication to Madelcn : 

“ One or other of them would go up from time 
to time, just to see^her and talk to her, and give her 
courage. The others would do something to help 
her.” 

Meanwhile she was to write them a letter, a 
long letter relating all her woes. When once she 
was let out of her room they would contrive some 
means of establishing a “ post ” — a rather chimerical 
undertaking, but promised in all innocence of heart, 
with the sole idea of comforting their little friend, 
and forgetting, in the thought of her troubles, that 
such clandestine proceedings were certainly wrong. 

Then, after every possible demonstration of 
friendship and sympathy, they disappeared, leaving 
Madelon anxious but comforted, with her hand- 
kerchief definitively spread out to dry, and prepar- 
ing herself for fresh adventures under the genial 
warmth of the sun. 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


99 

Now, to visit Mademoiselle Estelle and tell her 
a few home truths, however good for her it might 
be, was no light matter. 

James and Andre, as they put on their Sunday- 
best jackets and neatest pumps, were decidedly 
thoughtful and uneasy. Having learned from Ma- 
delon how precise her aunt s tastes and habits were, 
they determined to attract her by their appearance, 
to begin with, and they turned over all their ties, 
gloves, and clothes, to choose the best they had. 

Andre, with a brush in each hand, was arranging 
his hair, brushing it again and again to give it the 
desired appearance of a lawn just cut by the mow- 
ing machine, that has left the grass short, stiff, and 
smooth ; while James had recourse to the higher 
arts of the toilet, literally soaking himself with 
perfumery. The important point was to captivate 
Mademoiselle de Brevonnes, whether by the nose, 
the eye, or the ear ; no means were to be neglected. 

From time to time, however, they paused, and 
looking at each other like augurs — 

“ What are we to say to her ? ” they murmured — 
a question which found no answer beyond a shake 
of the head, so that at last they gave it up, trusting 
to the inspiration of the moment. 



Pierre and Jacques went from one to the other 



MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


IOI 


Pierre and Jacques, as businesslike as valets, 
went from one to the other, holding their coats, 
pouring out water, and gazing with admiration, 
and not without envy, at the part assumed by their 
elders, till the toilet was accomplished ; but then, 
as they saw them set out, and pictured them as 
entering the drawing-room at Le Huchoir, where 
they would be received by the enemy, a chill had 
run down their backs, and they thought with sat- 
isfaction of the parapet of the tower whence they 
were to watch operations. They escorted the en- 
voys to the gate, saw James ring with a steady 
hand — no burglarious entry now through a gap in 
the hedge — and only departed on hearing steps on 
the gravel within. 

“Mademoiselle de Brdvonnes?” asked James, 
civilly, touching his cap. He was an unexception- 
able emissary, and, though the old woman who an- 
swered the bell shared her mistress’s prejudices 
against the “ rowdy little scamps,” she made way 
for them to enter. 

There was no more to be seen ; the action would 
now take place indoors, and the only news they 
could get of its progress must come from Made- 
leine. So, returning to the lodge, they sprang up 


102 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


the steps, climbed the rope, and resumed their post 
of observation at the parapet to watch the little girl, 
who now sat pacified on the balcony, writing on her 
knees, that she might not have to leave the window. 

Jacques called her, and she looked up; then, in 
obedience to signals for silence, she waited. But 
the boys could no more be patient than she could, 
and by the end of three minutes the child’s thin 
voice was heard in a comical mixture of shrill and 
low tones, according as his fear of being heard by 
others or of not being heard by her predominated, 
saying these words, which could not in any case 
have compromised any one : 

“ Something is going on ! ” 

“What?” Madeleine’s signal naturally inquired. 
But, signalling in reply, Pierre made her understand 
that it was impossible to shout it out. However, 
by degrees she understood. 

“Two” — he held up his two hands — “two are 
gone” — explained by a pantomime of departure 
with gigantic strides. Then the direction of the 
expedition was indicated by a great waving of ex- 
tended arms — this was while James and Andr6 were 
on the road that led past both the estates, ending 
in the action of pulling a bell. 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


103 


“ Ding-dong ! ” Only to see Pierre’s hand work- 
ing up and down was enough to persuade you that 
you heard the ring, and Madeleine, in her amaze- 
ment, started from her seat. 

“ Here ? They are ringing here ? ” she inquired, 
striking the wall of the house with her hand. 

“ Yes, yes,” nodded Pierre, while his arms, still 
representing the visitors, advanced by degrees, evi- 
dently going up the drive, till he presently went on 
with his explanation by performing a series of greet- 
ings, bows, courtesies, and civilities, like persons 
making acquaintance. Then the little boy’s fancy 
carried on the dialogue, imagining every possible 
contingency — Mademoiselle Estelle’s surprise, and 
then a dismissal, but a polite and kind dismissal ; 
or, on the contrary, her feelings were touched by 
James’s appeal, and she held out her arms in a pa- 
thetic scene, which Pierre and Jacques enacted with 
such relish and fun that Madeleine almost laughed 
in spite of her sorrows. But it was too solemn a 
crisis for gaiety to endure long ; they soon remem- 
bered their anxieties; and now it was the little 
girl’s turn to report to them. 

She disappeared frequently from the window to 
go to the farther end of the room and listen, with 


104 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


the door ajar, in case some sound from below should 
reveal what was going on. But nothing could be 
heard of the mysterious parley, and by degrees she 
began to feel hopeful ; for if Aunt Estelle had not, 
in her first impulse, turned her back on the intrud- 
ers, she must evidently be listening to them ; and 
if she could thus listen for a full quarter of an hour, 
they were, perhaps, convincing her. 

So, in case all should be well, Madeleine bathed 
her eyes, smoothed her hair, and shook out her 
frock, almost expecting to be called down to join 
her friends, and wishing not to appear in a state 
that would vex her aunt. 

But the poor child’s illusion was soon dispelled ; 
the long-expected commotion suddenly broke out. 
A discord of angry voices came up to her; the 
drawing-room door was slammed with unparlia- 
mentary violence, and before she could rush out 
on to the balcony her champions had gone, flying 
down the drive as though the archangel of Eden 
were showing them to the gate. 

The sentinels on the tower, informed by signal, 
hastened off too to get the news, and Madeleine 
remained torn by doubts and disappointment which 
she eagerly began to confide to her letter. 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


105 

What had passed shall here be told — James’s 
brief epitome, shouted out as soon as he saw the 
other two, “ She kicked us out ! ” — being notable 
rather for vigour than for style, and requiring some 
amplification. 

Mademoiselle de Brevonnes, sitting in the draw- 
ing-room with some needlework in her hand, had 
received them with her usual politeness. For how, 
indeed, could she suppose that these two gentle- 
manly little lads, coming simply to call with the 
nice manners of well-bred children, had any con- 
nection with the boys of whom she was at that 
moment thinking with rage in her soul ? 

Then James spoke, and at his announcement, 
“ I am James Dacaube, mademoiselle, and this is 
my brother, and we have something to say to you,” 
she was silent with astonishment, which the boy 
took for mute acquiescence ; so he began his story 
with a beating heart, and speaking very fast. 



8 



Mademoiselle Estelle broke forth. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

The impossibility of catching rolling shot. — They write what they dare 
not say. 

“ Little Madeleine, who was living with her, 
was very lonely and very unhappy. Mademoiselle 
de Br£vonnes was not aware of this, he supposed, 
so they had come to tell her.” 

And without observing the progress of Aunt 
Estelle’s eyebrows converging by degrees till they 
were so close that not a thread would have lain 
between them, he set forth his case, choosing, as he 
thought, the very mildest words, the most likely to 
touch her, never for a moment suspecting that the 

(xo6) 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


107 


upshot of his appeal could be exactly stated in 
these few words : 

“You are not kind, and you don’t know how 
to be.” A truth beyond dispute, but hard to make 
palatable. 

Confiding still in the lady’s silence, which he 
mistook for attention, on he went in his rash 
career : 

“ Mademoiselle de Brevonnes herself must have 
noticed how silent and pale and sad Madeleine had 
been before that week when she had begun to play 
with them, and they had done her good. It ought 
never to begin again ! It was bad enough without 
that, to be perpetually changing her friends and 
home and way of life ! ” 

And he ingenuously went on to explain that 
“ they had calculated ” that if she should spend 
every year as she had spent this, she would never, 
in history, get beyond the reign of Charles V ! A 
queer way of learning ! And this was only one 
thing as an instance, while everything else was the 
same. He, James, would manage quite differ- 
ently. 

But James’s method was not destined, at any 
rate on this occasion, to be laid down at length, 


io8 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


for Mademoiselle Estelle, mistress of her tongue at 
last, broke forth : 

“What insolence had led these children to in- 
terfere!” And then flowed a torrent of abuse for 
all the harm they had done in this one week. 

“Madeleine had deceived her; Madeleine had 
rebelled! Madeleine was sitting up-stairs, drowned 
in tears and believing herself a victim. Made- 
leine ” 

But at this point an accident checked her. At 
this tide of fury the boys had looked at each other; 
their honest consciences felt what was just in this 
complaint of want of candour, and Andr£ was step- 
ping forward to get closer to his brother, when he 
pushed a little table on which lay a roll of worsted 
work. To keep it in its place as she worked, Aunt 
Estelle had lying on it a bag full of shot that served 
as a weight. Andrd, by a quick movement, had 
saved the table, but the bag, being heavy, had 
slipped off, fallen flat on the ground, and, bursting 
as it fell, had shed a shower of shot which scattered 
in every direction. The old lady gave vent to a cry 
of rage, and the two boys answered with incoherent 
excuses as they fell on all-fours trying to catch the 
shot. But the little shining balls ran about on the 



The two brothers fell on all-fours. 



IIO MADELEINE'S RESCUE. 

polished floor, which was not perfectly level, with 
the mocking nimbleness of things alive, sliding from 
under the fingers that thought they held them, ring- 
ing on the boards with a sharp, pert clatter, and 
rolling off in dozens to hide under the lowest chairs 
and sofas. 

On all-fours was not enough; the boys lay flat 
on the ground. The hapless fellows, red in the face 
and out of all patience, felt their brains reeling, 
while Mademoiselle de Brevonnes stood towering 
over them and poured out the floods of her elo- 
quence. 

Coming back from the uttermost ends of their 
chase, they tried to stammer out excuses as they 
added their contributions to the main heap ; but 
she heeded them not. All she asked was “ never 
to see them again ! — never, as long as she lived ! ” 
And so she told them without circumlocution. 

And when she repeated this for the tenth time, 
while a fresh land-slip from the heap of shot they 
had fancied safe went trickling down to the far- 
thest corner of the room, James, perceiving that he 
could never refill the bag by the mere aid of his 
hands nor stop the rush of invective, pulled his 
brother by the sleeve, and they fled like thieves, 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


Ill 


slamming the door with the bang which had alarmed 
Madeleine, and abandoning the position as utterly 
as any routed army ever did. 

The disaster was complete. No illusion was 
possible, and the luckless envoys, having got back 
into their garden-jackets, stretched themselves at 
full length on the wicker benches of the lodge, 
sadly recapitulating the facts : Madeleine was a 
prisoner, or little short of it ; Aunt Estelle’s silent 
grudge had become open war; their persons, till 
now unknown to the old lady, were henceforth 
known to every one, from the servants to the watch- 
dog ; and their every movement was open to sus- 
picion. The great step had been taken — and had 
failed. 

It was a bulletin calculated to discourage the 
bravest. The four brothers, hanging their heads 
with disconsolate looks, could not even laugh at 
the spilling of the shot ! Though the picture of 
the tall, black figure talking without pause, looking 
down on that absurd hunt on all-fours, at which 
she had not even smiled — how they could have 
laughed at it at any other time! 

But the black figure was Aunt Estelle ; Aunt 
Estelle had Madelon in her power, from the tip of 


1 12 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

hen toe to the end of her hair; and poor Made- 
?on, in her little room over there, was still wait- 
ing for a word of hope which they could not 
give her. 

However, they must say something to her; so, 
at a mournful pace — as mournful, that is to say, as 
is compatible with climbing a knotted rope — the 
procession clambered up. 

As soon as they appeared, the little girl under- 
stood everything — their heads bowed and slowly 
shaken in unison, their arms hanging by their sides. 
It was defeat in four persons, and worse than any- 
thing she had feared. It needed no more than a 
few broken phrases, shrieked by Jacques, to enable 
her to guess all they could tell her; and she her- 
self was so far prudent as to check by a sign the 
epithets flung to the winds from the tower to Le 
Huchoir, where they seemed to flatten themselves 
against the wall with angry satisfaction. 

After some vague encouragement, “ Have pa- 
tience — we will see to-morrow — we will try,” the 
boys went in, almost beginning to lose faith in 
their good star, not daring to be so confident as 
in their promises of the morning, and wondering 
whether the way they had marked out and followed 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


”3 

unaided were indeed the best. Madeleine, mean- 
while returning to her sole consolation, was adding 
page on page to the interminable letter, destined 
probably never to be read, in which every sentence 
almost without exception began with, “ I am so 
unhappy,” unless it were, “ I am so wretched” — a 
monotony of diction that would have made it easy 
to reduce the endless epistle to a note of ten lines, 
if the little girl had but conscientiously set to work 
to eliminate all the repetitions. 

But this was not her point ; she allowed her 
pen to pour out the beneficent flow of words which 
soothed her, while her friends, a little crestfallen, 
though still very determined, for the hundredth 
time sat in council. 

“ Cutting up the stuff was not everything ; it 
must be sewn together again ! ” said they, quoting 
the celebrated speech which, according to James, 
it would never be Madelon’s fate to learn from 
Queen Catherine. And how were they to patch 
this terrible rent ? 

Little Jacques, with the constancy of conviction, 
gave out a new edition of his original motion, 
“ For my part, I should ask mamma.” But the 
time had not yet come for this supreme appeal, 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


1 14 

and they rejected his amendment, though with less 
haughtiness than on the former occasion. 

However, few ways were left open to them, and 
it was in vain that they started hypotheses: “If 
Aunt Sew-a-Seam might only ” It was per- 

fectly clear that Mademoiselle de Brevonnes’s horse 
would not run away with her in the carriage — at 
any rate, not within the next day or two ; nor was 
she likely to sprain her ankle in some out-of-the- 
way lane where the boys, and none others, would 
find her; nor would the doctor happen to call at 
Le Huchoir, and, noticing Madelon’s pale face, ex- 
claim, “ This child, mademoiselle, must immediately 
be allowed four cheerful and high-spirited playfel- 
lows!” In short, none of the idle suppositions by 
which they tjied to cheat their helplessness could 
ever come true. 

There was no alternative but a letter, which 
Pierre proposed to write, either signed by himself 
alone, since he had not been included in the rating 
they had received, or else by all four, in the form of 
a supplication or petition, to explain to Aunt Estelle 
what perhaps she had failed to gather from the 
agitated address of the two elder boys; for they 
now relied on the hope that it was for want of 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


”5 

having really understood that she had been in such 
a passion. 

“ Otherwise,” said James for the twentieth time, 
with perfect conviction and candour, “ how could 
merely telling her the truth make her so angry?” 
A question which showed very little knowledge of 
the world in a youth who had tried his hand at 
diplomacy, since personal remarks are all the more 
irritating in proportion to their truth. However, 
when you have lost your footing is not a time for 
criticising the wood of the bough you cling to. The 
very last effort the boys meant to attempt — a visit, 
namely, to Troyes to see Uncle Etienne — would 
require more preparation than Pierre’s petition, so 
they decided on trying that forthwith. 

If it failed, there would still be time for them to 
get their mother’s permission, often granted, foi a 
journey to the town, and then to burn their ships 
while settling the question as to which were the 
harder, an aunt’s heart or an uncle’s. Now, was 
the letter to be written by one hand, in a uniform 
style, simply as a statement which they would all 
sign, or should each appear in person? This was 
settled without demur, the force of four unanimous 
but different expressions of opinion being, as they 


u6 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

thought, more striking, not to mention the chance 
of some happy phrase which one might hit on rather 
than another, and which might perhaps turn the 

scale. 

So each in his own way, his head between his 
hands, or biting his pen, or rubbing his forehead, 
they sat apart, seeking inspiration ; scribbling, 
scratching out, scrawling notes of reference, with 
asterisks and crosses, till at length the divine affla- 
tus came, and, tearing up all they had done, they 
wrote what they had to say straight off on fresh 
sheets of paper. 

James, bent on proving his innocence, tried to 
explain his motives, accounting for his visit and his 
“desire to do good” at once, by telling Mademoi- 
selle de Brevonnes things she seemed not to know, 
and by filling the place towards Madeleine of “the 
brothers she had not got.” It was sincere and 
ill-judged, as flowery as an academical speech, 
and won the elegant writer the most flattering 
praise. 

Andr£, in a few lines, apologized for his clumsi- 
ness, alluding to the “ plaguy rolling shot ” and the 
impossibility of holding them. As he had not 
spoken — Mademoiselle Estelle must admit that — 


MADELEINE'S RESCUE. 


ii 7 

she could owe him no grudge for anything he had 
said ; there was only the accident against him, and 
“ he would willingly have repaired it if his brother 
had not brought him away.” 

Pierre, on his part, drew a pathetic picture of 
the delightful week they had spent together, un- 
blushingly expatiating on the merits of his brothers 
and his own, on Madelon’s joy at having made their 
acquaintance, and the pleasure it would give her to 
see them again. 

Jacques had indited a simple little note, quite 
short, and possibly the most to the purpose : 

“Give us back little Madeleine. We will be 
very good and polite and gentle, and will play 
where you can see us, if you wish it” 

Taken for all in all, this was all there was to be 
said — indeed, for a moment they thought of send- 
ing this note alone to Le Huchoir ; but then the 
authors’ vanity had risen in arms : “ All that trouble 
for nothing!” 

So the notes were put into a cream-laid en- 
velope, their unity being preserved by the domi- 
nant note which, through all the phrases, the com- 
pliments, and the sentiment, rang still the same: 

“ Take our word for it : you want us badly ! ” 


1 18 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


Then, at nightfall, it was slipped into the letter- 
box to await its fate, till the postman’s peal should 
announce to the inhabitants that he had passed that 
way and delivered the letters by mail. 




Nicaise and his charge had disappeared. 


CHAPTER IX. 

Aunt Estelle’s plain prose. — Uncle Tracery, and what he said. — 
James’s wits at work. 

Next morning, very early, before they had time 
for suspense, a little note came in reply to their 
floods of eloquence — cold, pointed, and cutting as 
steel, and demolishing at once all hope of mollify- 
ing Mademoiselle de Brevonnes, or touching her 
feelings, were it never so little. 

She assured the four boys, in a vein of biting 
irony, that “she was quite capable of bringing up 
Madeleine without advice or even assistance,” and 
concluded with a satirical paragraph which mad- 
dened them with rage. 

(” 9 ) 


20 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


“ When I was young,” she wrote, “ there was a 
wholesome custom which I regret. Little children 
were taught how they should speak — but that was, 
to hold their tongues. They also learned to write, 
but only their exercises, and that was much more 
to the purpose.” 

At the foot, in her large, upright hand, she had 
signed her name without any form of ending, and 
the stop she had set after it was indeed such a full 
stop that it gave the boys the feeling as of a door 
slammed at their backs, so emphatic was that round 
black dot. 

It was a difficult matter, certainly, to interfere in 
other people’s business, and their rage was mingled 
with despair of themselves. They could never do 
any good ! Even when they had torn the letter to 
shreds with vengeful wrath, they were no further 
forward, and they quaked at the thought of a jour- 
ney to Troyes. 

What reception would they have there? Might 
not the things which had angered Aunt Estelle, 
which she would not listen to nor understand, 
equally vex Uncle Etienne? Were all the family 
alike — cold, hard, ruthless, and, above all, so old? — 
so old that nothing which concerned the joys and 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


1 2 1 


sorrows and needs of children any longer reminded 
them of things that they had known ! They 
dreaded finding this true. 

But, happily, besides their tender pity for the 
little girl, their warlike instincts also urged them 
on — the spirit of resistance in .which their pride 
craved success, and, more than all, the elastic energy 
of their natures, which would not suffer them to sit 
long under the yoke of dejection, even when it 
was caused by the eloquent simplicity of a full 
stop. 

After their rage and a pelting storm of abuse, 
there came a sudden realization of the actual 
state of affairs — rare with them — for a minute 
almost reducing them to resignation ; then the 
swing, having reached the lowest point, flew up 
into the air once more; so, shifting their guns, as 
it were, to the other shoulder, these champions of 
innocence made a fresh start. They had sometimes 
heard of dreadful cases where ill-used children are 
saved from their tortures only by the intervention 
of neighbours and an outbreak of public opinion. 
Although this was not precisely a case in point — 
Madeleine’s torments being most endurable — they 
would represent public opinion to her relations, and 

9 


122 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


they would try whether these people were indiffer- 
ent to all the little girl had to endure. 

When their mother questioned them, on their 
asking for leave, they replied by telling her half 
the truth : 

“They were going to see Monsieur de Bre- 
vonnes, of Troyes, on really serious business ; this 
evening they would tell her all.” 

In fact, they would then either have succeeded 
in their attempt, and be proud to tell her of their 
past anxieties and their present triumph ; or they 
would really be at their wits’ end, and would all the 
more readily apply to mamma for advice — a su- 
preme appeal which Madame Dacaube knew of old, 
and she was prepared to meet the case with all its 
probable complications. So she pressed the matter 
no further, on her usual system of leaving her sons 
to work out their experiments to the end, as she 
was easy on the score of their perfect honesty, 
which would not have allowed them to offer this 
explanation if they had any other purpose in view. 
She merely took the precaution of advancing the 
breakfast - hour, to avoid the race against time, 
which was the usual preliminary to a start by 
the one-o’clock train — an arrangement which was 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


123 


almost nullified by a last interview with Made- 
leine. 

At the news, “We are going to see Uncle Tra- 
cery,” the little girl’s astonishment had been so great 
that rather more time than they had intended was 
spent in explaining to her; so that the usual ex- 
hortation followed the first smack of the coachman’s 
whip as they started : 

“Post-haste, Nicaise! We are late.” 

Nicaise and his charges disappeared in a cloud 
of dust ; and while Monsieur de Brevonnes, little 
suspecting the impending arrival, was sitting at his 
desk and taking studies of capitals out of his port- 
folios to give them some light, finishing touches, the 
four boys were jumping into the train. 

About an hour later there was a knock at his 
door, and the servant, repeating James’s message 
word for word, said : 

“ Some friends of Mademoiselle Madeleine’s, sir, 
who have come with news of her. Will you see 
them ? ” 

Monsieur de Brevonnes rose to meet them with 
a glad welcome, and ten minutes later the four boys 
had gathered round the kind man’s arm-chair, and, 


124 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


encouraged to confidence by the charm of his man- 
ner, were all talking at once. 

This was something quite unlike what they had 
imagined ; but knowing how to express his good-will, 
their host had ordered up every kind of cake and 
refreshment that the cupboards might contain, and 
pressed the party to eat and drink, mingling his 
offers and his urgency with questions and remarks. 

“And how is my little Madeleine? She has not 
forgotten her old uncle? Now, which of you will 
remember to tell her this ? — The belfry is quite fin- 
ished, and we have kept the spire. I was quite sure 
that we might save it with a little care.” 

And as the boys smiled at each other as much 
as to say, “Just so — that is just what she told us!” 
he interrupted himself to add : 

“Yes, I talked so much about my chapel to 
the little darling that she knows as much about 
it as I do.” 

Then, after thinking a minute or two, he added 
sadly : 

“ I believe it was her only pastime here, poor 
little thing!” 

This was their opportunity, and James began 
his story, quietly, steadily, with no vehement out- 





The four boys were all talking at once 



126 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


breaks ; his recent check had taught him pru- 
dence: 

Madeleine’s sudden appearance after her patient 
toil to make a gap in the hedge ; the sadness of her 
loneliness as she had described it ; the craving for 
companionship and mirth which had made her cry 
with longing; the dismal austerity of her life with 
Mademoiselle de Brevonnes ; and finally her delight 
in the freedom and exuberance of that week when 
she once more enjoyed the activity and amusement 
to which she had been accustomed in Brittany be- 
fore her mother died — he told it all with the fer- 
vour of conviction. Then, going on to the fatal 
day which had ended that happy time, he related 
with equal frankness the episode of the paint- 
stained frock, Aunt Estelle’s anger, Madelon’s con- 
fession, the stopping of the gap and closing of all 
communications between the two estates, his own 
attempt to soften the lady, their letter to her and 
its negative results, finally describing as a crown- 
ing appeal to Uncle Etienne the window framed 
in roses where Madeleine sat from morning till night 
like an inconsolable naiad, shedding all the water 
of her eyes in crying for her four little friends. 

Without having recourse, like her, to a hand- 


MADELEINE'S RESCUE. 


127 


kerchief, Monsieur de Brdvonnes wiped away two 
little tears with the tip of his finger at James’s last 
word. And as he stopped short after exclaiming, 
as he had done several times in the course of the 
story : “ My poor little Madeleine — still such a 

child and miserable already!” the lad went on to 
the point he had been aiming at from the first : 

“ But you, sir, if you would write to her Aunt 
Estelle — she would believe what you say, no doubt, 
though she does not believe us. You could tell 
her that she is mistaken about us ; that we will do 
her no mischief or wrong, but that it is impossible, 
after all, that children should behave like grown-up 
people. We can no more be wise as she is than 
she can be young like us, and amused at trifles, 
and talk as we talk ; that children must, of course, 
have relations who are not like them a bit, and who 
are their elders, but, besides them, some friends of 
their own age — when they have no brothers or 
sisters who think the same and do the same things, 
and grow up with them — and that it is too dismal 
not to have any.” 

Monsieur de Brevonnes listened without saying 
a word or giving the very smallest sign of approba- 
tion or of blame, merely turning his head more and 


128 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


more to look out of the window as James proceeded 
with his speech — so much so that at last the boys 
saw nothing but his hair. When the boy ceased 
speaking, a little dashed by this persistent silence, 
he still did not move, and it was not till after a 
pause that Pierre added shyly, “You will be kind 
enough, sir, to tell her all this?” for he began to 
think that the architect had suddenly fallen asleep, 
or that his imagination had carried him away to 
the spire he had so happily preserved on his chapel. 

Then Uncle Etienne turned round. His face, 
just now so kind and open, was completely changed. 
The corners of his mouth were drawn down and 
slightly tremulous ; his eyes were gloomy ; he had 
turned pale, and looked ill to such a point that the 
children could not repress an exclamation of sur- 
prise. He smiled then, to reassure them, and in a 
voice as melancholy as his eyes he said: 

“You, who love each other so dearly, who live 
together, who know everything about each other, 
who all bear the same name, can you believe that 
some day you may never see any more of each 
other, never write, hardly even know each other?” 

And when the four brothers protested with a 
vehement “ Never, sir ! ” 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


129 


“ Well,” he went on, “ we three, my little friends, 
we three have come to that! We, who were as 
good friends as you are, who said, as you say, 
‘Never!’ who clung together as you do, confident 
that the three Brevonnes would always fill one 
happy nook on earth — happy merely because they 
were together — we have quarrelled. Where one of 
us is the others will not go ; and I would sooner 
write to a stranger than to my sister in the way 
you ask.” 

He had turned his face to the window more 
completely even than before, and silence had fallen 
in spite of the desperate searchings of James and 
Andre for a single word to say which would not 
come to them from their oppressed hearts. They 
were aware of such intense grief in these few broken 
phrases, spoken quickly to be the sooner over. 

Little Jacques it was who broke the spell. He 
went quietly up to Uncle Etienne, and, laying his 
small hand on the old man’s sleeve, said in a tone 
of encouragement : 

“ If I were you, I should go to them, sir. Bre- 
vonnes and Le Huchoir are such a little way 
off!” 

To the child this visit was evidently a mere 


130 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


question of the train or a coach; and Monsieur de 
Brevonnes, amused in spite of his sadness, recov- 
ered himself, and answered softly : 

“ If I only dared, little Jacques, my feet would 
carry me.” Then he added, to himself rather than 
to the child, who listened in bewilderment: “Words 
so hastily spoken which can never be taken back 
or forgotten ! And how do I know, after all ? — 
they perhaps are content, and I am the only one 
who so bitterly rues it all ! ” 

James, with an impulse of compassion, was ready 
to cry, “No, I am sure you are not!” But his 
inexperienced eyes had failed to discern the part 
played by regret in Aunt Estelle’s bitterness ; he 
only remembered her haughty coldness. “ What 
can he find to grieve over in not seeing her?” he 
wondered to himself; while Monsieur de Br£- 
vonnes, still talking to himself, went on : 

“We never dreamed that the poor little one 
would suffer too ! But of course it was inevitable. 
Now, if we were with Estelle we could tell her — 
point out to her. She was always stern, but if Paul 

explained to her Besides, it might be good 

for the child to have one severe guardian when 
there are two to do the spoiling ; and we should 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


131 

spoil her And yet This spring, did she 

ever ask what Madeleine was doing here?” 

Here he paused again, as if he had drifted into 
another vein of thought ; then he remembered the 
presence of the four boys, sitting silent and embar- 
rassed, and lifting his head suddenly, he said, in his 
usual voice : 

“ This is a sad conclusion to our chat, my little 
friends, and such a reception as I fear will not in- 
duce you to come often to see me. But I had to 
tell you, that you might understand that I can do 
nothing. There is no trouble so great as that of a 
family that has fallen asunder like ours ; and the 
idea that Madeleine too is sad and forlorn adds to 
my grief. As to what you, on your part, want to 
obtain from Estelle, remember this : there is hardly 
anything on earth that cannot be conquered by gen- 
tleness. And if you begin with patience, you have 
always this consolation to look forward to : that as 
soon as you want to try other means, a moment is 
enough for smashing windows with stones and 
making up for lost time.” 

He then made each of the boys choose from 
among various trifles something to remember him 
by; and as the hour of the first return train was 


i3 2 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


past and the next some little time off, he proposed 
a walk, so as not to keep their young energies 
cooped up too long. 

Partly out of curiosity, and partly, too, to please 
him, James said, “ Let us go, instead, to see the 
chapel, sir, if you have no objection.” 

And so, in their turn, the Dacaube boys came 
to see Uncle Etienne’s paradise. 

Towards the end of the visit Monsieur de Bre- 
vonnes paused and pointed out to Jacques a mould- 
ing along the wall of the aisle. 

“ So far,” said he, “ we three had worked together 
at the plans, the archaeology, the drawings ; beyond 
that I have worked alone. It strikes me as less good.” 

This man of exquisite taste, a talented artist, 
who even in matters of professional experience be- 
lieved that affection, though ignorant, was necessary 
to secure him success, expressed his tender feeling 
and the burden of his present loneliness with such 
simple truth that the lad at his side was touched, 
and began to pitv not Madeleine alone, but those 
who were involuntarily the cause of her woes. 

“ And yet,” said he to himself, “ he has only to 
go back to the others, as Jacques told him, and they 
would all be comfortable again, and Madeleine 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


133 


happy forever. Is there no way of making people 
who used to love each other so much, love each 
other again a little ? ” 

And from that moment an idea took root in 
James’s brain,, a living and growing thought, to 
which he added something each instant, so that by 
the time they were saying good-bye it had advanced 
from seed to flowers and from flowers to fruit, al- 
most ripe already. 

“ If you should see my little Madeleine, give her 
a big kiss from her uncle,” Monsieur de Brevonnes 
said, as they went off ; “ and to her, too, say ‘ Pa- 
tience ! ’ ” 

He clasped all their four little hands at once, 
and walked off with long strides, while his visitors 
scrambled into the train and vociferously exchanged 
their remarks and impressions — all very much the 
same. 




Madeleine, leaning over the parapet, talked to the boys. 


CHAPTER X. 

Still the Deus ex machina. — Madame Dacaube is promoted to the 
honours of the privy council. — The Phanlonde carries a message 
of peace. 

A grand reconciliation of Uncle Paulin, Uncle 
Etienne, and Aunt Estelle, as much because they 
were so unhappy as for the sake of securing for 
Madeleine the spoiling to which Monsieur de Bre- 
vonnes had alluded — this was the very simple idea 
which James had cherished since he had seen that 
moulding in the chapel, and he enlarged upon it 
the same evening, sitting at his mother’s feet. 

“ To touch the hearts of grown-up persons,” the 
boys had declared, “ the advice and opinion of a 

(* 34 ) 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


135 

grown person was needed”; and Jacques, to his 
great satisfaction, had at last seen his advice fol- 
lowed. 

They indeed contributed the “ idea,” as Pierre 
said, and that, as every one knows, is the principal 
thing in such a business ; so they were somewhat 
consoled for their previous defeats — all the more 
because, when it was summed up and stated, as 
James put it, to his mother, it really looked capi- 
tal — that “ idea.” 

The reason of their undertaking and its conse- 
quences, the benefit to the uncles and aunt, and the 
advantage to Madeleine — all were set forth. In- 
stead of having the little girl for only four months 
of the year in fragments, which did not constitute 
a real life, they would all have her the whole year 
round ; three to love her, three to teach her, com- 
bining history and information and sewing, which 
were doled out to the child in separate parcels to 
be swallowed in doses without the pleasantness of 
variety ; some scolding her still, perhaps, but the 
others always ready to comfort and spoil her, as 
Uncle Etienne had said. 

And, after all, no depression can defy the stir 
of daily life when four are together. Uncle Paulin’s 


I3 6 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

coldness would thaw, his brother’s over-sensitiveness 
would cool, even Mademoiselle de Brevonnes’s mo- 
roseness might be mollified. Being happy, they 
would be kind, and, being kind, they would make 
the little girl happy. 

This really would “ save Madelon ! ” 

And, after all, since they were all three miserable 
as it was, they were at least sure of losing nothing 
by trying a new course of action, and that was what 
they must be made to see. But by what miracle 
are three people to be brought together who regret 
each other, mourn over each other, but who will 
not take a single step towards meeting, nor even 
write a single word? What, above all, could four 
strangers — and little boys — do ? ” 

This was the easy problem laid before Madame 
Dacaube. Thus it may be observed that it was 
not — as Pierre had affirmed — just where they looked 
for it that the chief obstacle lay. However, setting 
aside the initial difficulties, their mother began by 
gently pointing a moral. 

“ How much simpler would matters have been, 
if from the first the children had brought Made- 
leine by the hand straight to their mother! She, 
as a neighbour, would have called on Mademoiselle 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


137 


de Br6vonnes and begged her to trust her little 
niece to play with the boys ; she would have made 
herself answerable for their behaviour; she would 
have had a right to discuss the child’s dulness and 
need of companionship, and thus, at once, all the 
concealment, which had so vexed the aunt, would 
have been avoided. Tempting the child to deceive 
— was not that enough to justify all her aunt’s 
resentment, and to close her door against them 
once and for all ? It was her duty and her right 
to protect her niece from comrades such as 
they ! 

Then their visit, their letter. 

Provoked as Mademoiselle Estelle had already 
been, she could not fail to be equally annoyed by 
one and the other. This pertinacity was intoler- 
able. She was mistress in her own house, and 
must let them know it. Who would submit to be 
dictated to by a parcel of boys? 

And when Andre put in, “ But we entreated her, 
mamma, quite humbly ! ” 

“ Yes,” Madame Dacaube went on, with a 
laugh, “ by telling her she could not do without 
you ! She can do without you, and she has 
proved it.” 

10 


38 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


To this an indignant murmur replied, “Was 
that what mamma meant by helping them?” 

But Madame Dacaube meant to go on to the 
end of her little homily. 

“To arrange for Madelon to see them in secret 
was wrong towards Mademoiselle de Brevonnes and 
to their mother ; to say nothing,” she added, “ of the 
want of pride that lets visitors in by the back door 
when the front door is shut upon them.” But 
having said this, and feeling that it was as much 
as her boys’ spirit would endure with patience, 
especially as they had themselves told her the story 
of their errors, she hastened to discuss the idea of 
the reconciliation. 

It was impossible, she fully concurred, to hit on 
a better way out of this particular complication ; 
she would join them heart and head, on one condi- 
tion, which was, that they should promise before- 
hand to do nothing, not even by signal, without 
consulting her. This being agreed to, her subtle 
experience in “ the feelings of grown-up people,” as 
the children phrased it, was called upon at once. 
And this subtle experience was highly necessary, 
for the boys forthwith started on the wrong tack, 
as she showed them. 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


139 


“The right way,” said James, “would be to find 
out who was wrong, and to tell him of it, that he 
may apologize ” 

“Tell him he was wrong, ask him to apologize, 
and so give fresh life and energy to the bitterness 
of discussion ! ” Madame Dacaube stopped him at 
once. This was the sure way to confirm and aggra- 
vate the present state of things. 

Of all the influences of time, one alone is almost 
certainly beneficent — the soothing effect of remote- 
ness. In this case it must be regarded as salvation. 
Every detail of the quarrel must remain dimmed 
and forgotten ; they must not be stirred by the 
lightest finger-touch. The older past, on the con- 
trary, must be made to yield all its memories ; the 
sister and brothers must, if possible, be moved to 
regret by such remembrances ; and when, by dint 
of thinking of the past, they were fully conscious 
of the void and a tender longing, some opportunity 
must be contrived when they would have only to 
fall into each other’s arms. But to make inquiries, 
reproaches, and apologies was sheer folly : a revival 
of past grievances had never ended a quarrel. 

This task of evoking old memories in her elders 
— “emotionizing” them, as James called it, with 


140 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


more force than accuracy of language — must nat- 
urally fall on Madelon, who was to make this her 
daily and delicate business. By skilful questions, 
by suggesting reminiscences, by hinting “ when you 
were little,” and by asking for “ stories ” such as 
old people are glad to tell, recalling things they 
had otherwise forgotten, she must bring to her 
aunt’s mind what had been once and was no more, 
so often that it would be impossible for the old 
lady not to be touched in the end, as her uncles 
would also be by the letters she must write to them. 
And if only these three softened hearts could be 
brought to meet, an instant would be enough to 
make Le Huchoir a happy home. 

But now, how were they to communicate with 
Madeleine, to tell her this, and instruct her in the 
part she was* to play ? 

Still thinking of their mother’s lecture, the 
boys waited for Madame Dacaube to invent a plan, 
sitting in silence, but with a spark of mischief in 
their eyes. Since it was wrong to see their little 
friend by stratagem, and no less wrong, no doubt, 
to write to her ; since, too, the whole knot of the 
plot lay in her hands, how were they to let her 
know ? 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


141 

But the snare did not embarrass their mother, 
who indeed took advantage of it to point another 
lesson, namely, the fatality by which one error of 
conduct always entails another. Having started on 
a wrong tack, they could now only sail across the 
wind even to reach a good end, and this was what 
pleased her least in the whole business. 

“ But yet,” objected Andre, “ Monsieur Etienne 
sent her ‘ a kiss, and to be patient,’ so he evidently 
had no objection to our seeing her.” To which 
Madame Dacaube replied, half in fun and half 
in earnest, and with some hesitation : 

“If we could but meet her — by chance!” But 
an outcry had stopped her short. 

“Mamma is cheating! Mamma is trying to 
cheat!” shouted the boys; and mamma was forced 
to admit it. A chance meeting brought about by 
every contrivance in their power was hardly con- 
sistent. Certainly a first fault led to many more, 
since even their mother was compromised by it, 
and she said to herself, in an undertone, that she 
could almost wish she had known nothing about 
the business. 

Knowing all, she was bound to be strict ; and 
vet this philanthropic scheme, crooked as its ways 


142 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


had been, had a really good end in view. Well, 
the best thing she could do was to sanction what 
had to be done by her presence and her advice, 
while making the boys give their word to be most 
cautious, for the sake both of prudence and respect. 
“ Exactly what is necessary ; nothing more.” And 
when once Madeleine was initiated into her part, 
they and she were to go home and adopt the rule 
of divine patience prescribed by Monsieur de Bre- 
vonnes. 

As to what was “ strictly necessary ” and to be 
done at once, the boys were ready for that. As 
to being patient, that they would see about after- 
wards ; and as luck would have it that action came 
first, they went to bed in high spirits. 

Very early next morning Madeleine, full of curi- 
osity as to yesterday’s expedition, of which she had 
heard nothing, was looking out at the horizon, so 
often studied by female eyes from the time of Sister 
Anne to our own day, when Pierre’s head appeared 
above the parapet. As mysterious as Fate, he 
shouted out a few words, and then, heedless of her 
imploring pantomime asking “ Why ? ” he vanished 
as if by magic. 

“ Go down to the acacia terrace ! ” 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


143 


Why was Madeleine to go down to one of the 
few spots whence she could see neither Le Huchoir 
nor La Jonchere, and where it was almost certainly 
impossible that her friends could see her? 

The fine old trees from which it took its name 
surrounded the terrace on three sides, like a strong- 
hold, and in front the eye could only wander for 
miles over the meadow-land. The foot of the wall, 
which supported a parapet, rose from the stream ; 
and Madeleine understood ! 

It was in the Phanlonde, under the river wall, 
safe on neutral territory, and paddling down the 
stream, that her friends meant to come, and, with 
her elbows on the parapet, hidden by the screen 
of trees on the other three sides, she could talk 
with as little fear of a surprise from her aunt as 
in the days of the war-dance in the copse and the 
circus-riding in the park. 

She was at the bottom of the garden with one 
bound, and all her guesses were verified. There 
was the Phanlonde lying under the wall, kept in 
one spot by a noiseless stroke of the oars now 
and then; and there, too,. were the four familiar 
faces, looking up in expectation of her coming, 
smiling, but somewhat agitated, too. They greeted 


144 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


her with a cry of glee — a very cautious, quiet little 
cry, as beseems a crew in hiding, but so genuinely 
cordial that Madeleine forgot her past sorrows, and 
that Madame Dacaube, seated at work under a 
willow on the bank, was quite touched by it. 

With a wave of the hand, in a few words, James 
explained to Madelon why they had come, and ex- 
pressed his sympathy ; to which the little girl re- 
sponded with a shy smile. Then, the first emotion 
being over, and the impossibility plainly proved of 
any attempt to stretch far enough to shake hands, 
the conversation went on, incoherent, fragmentary, 
and at once happy and anxious, confounding in its 
amazing confusion all the events of the last few 
days — the adventure of the shot, Aunt Estelle, the 
chapel, and Uncle Etienne, with inquiries as to 
Madelon’s troubles, and explanations of what she 
had to do next. 

Taken down in short-hand, not a Champollion 
could have disentangled or have read this dialogue, 
which seemed at cross-purposes. From below and 
from above, each of the children took part inde- 
pendently-understanding, interrupting, putting in 
his word in reply to his neighbour, the whole thing 
giving an exact idea of what the chirping and war- 







■ f/rt V 


Wt/ZUUm 

mm 

1 mm 


fl 


If • 'Ui\ I* iIR 

Hi 

’Ail/ ; lISm 


Madame Dacaube was seated at work on the bank. 








I 4 6 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

bling of birds as they salute a summer’s dawn might 
be if it were translated into human language. By 
a stroke of genius which did the greatest credit to 
her intelligence, Madeleine had grasped from it all 
that it was important that she should know, and 
her loving heart, which was easily touched, was fired 
with such enthusiasm for her task as a crusader’s 
starting for the Holy Land. She seemed to see, 
as in one picture, her Uncle Paulin all alone in 
his great manor-house, Uncle Etienne out of con- 
ceit even with his beloved chapel, and Aunt Estelle 
walled up in morose coldness as a child covers its 
eyes with its hands to hide its tears; and then, 
again, these three good souls brought together by 
her skill, all smiles and gladness. And in her sense 
of vocation she felt a tide of virtue — of pity and 
gentleness — which she had never before known. In 
point of fact, it was on the least lovable of these 
sad souls that she was required first to exert her 
patience and her influence. But the little girl, once 
started, had the gift of tenacity, in hopefulness as 
much as in discouragement, and in her neophyte 
ardour she was ready to leave her friends and rush 
off at once. 

The boys, however, though their elation was 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


147 


damped by the new light on their past achieve- 
ments, were, on the other hand, very proud of the 
schemes they were meditating, and they detained 
Madeleine, being quite determined to hear their 
praises sung once more. 

And the opportunity would not soon occur 
again. The Phanlonde might never again cast an- 
chor under the terrace where the imprisoned fair 
and her four knights were exchanging thoughts, 
with so fine a halo of local colour. They had 
promised “ only one talk, if possible.” Still, yield- 
ing to the letter rather than the spirit of their 
mother’s counsel, they had agreed that every after- 
noon towards dusk the boat should pull down past 
the spot, quite in the natural course of things. If 
Madelon also, in the natural course of things, should 
happen to be walking on the terrace — well, she 
could keep the crew informed of what was going 
on in so many words as might be spoken while 
they floated twenty yards down-stream. Then un- 
expected business would call the conferring parties 
away ; they would only have the benefit of going 
to bed with an easier mind. 

A code of signals by flags of different colours 
at Madeleine’s window was arranged to inform them 


148 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

of her progress through the day, ranging from black 
to white, through blue and red, to indicate every 
phase of feeling, from the deepest gloom —black, of 
course — to a fit of anger, displayed in the red pen- 
non, or heavenly calm, in the strip of blue; the 
white to be a sign of peace and perfect concord, 
though the little girl had no hope of hauling it up 
for some time to come. 




Masters and servants marched round the structure. 


CHAPTER XI. 

The sugar castle. — Josette is tempted. — What came of a christening- 
cake. 

Having recovered a little from her first excite- 
ment, she made them tell her all about the journey 
to Troyes, their visit to Uncle Etienne's rooms, his 
very words, the grief he had betrayed, and which 
filled her with pity ; and then, again and again, she 
repeated her thanks, her admiration for her friends’ 
courage and ingenuity, and dwelt on the good for- 
tune that had thrown them in her way. 

They listened with subdued delight, telling her 
all she asked, till Pierre, whose ears were sharp 
enough to “ hear the grass grow,” as they said at 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


150 

home, announced the sound of a step on the gravel 
in front of the house — nay, he would venture to 
say of Mademoiselle Estelle’s step. 

With three strokes of the oars the Phanlonde 
was gone, scarcely betrayed by the furrow of her 
wake, while Jacques, in the greatest excitement, 
exclaimed: “We forgot one thing! oh, we forgot 
one thing! We never told Madelon what her 
uncle said about the windows — that she could 
break them by-and-bye!” And his brothers could 
hardly pacify him by explaining to him the mystery 
of the metaphor. 

Madeleine, meanwhile, was slowly retracing her 
steps along the avenue down which she had so 
lately flown, turning over many things in her brain, 
over-excited, but touched with a remnant of ran- 
cour towards her aunt, which melted away as she 
thought of the happiness she might give her if she 
could but restore her to her old life by the exercise 
of every tender and delicate instinct, and impelled 
by the most purely womanly feeling of pity. 

And at the same time, in quite another place, 
not treading the gravel at all, as Pierre had asserted, 
sat Mademoiselle Estelle. Quite unconscious of 
the plots that were being laid for her benefit, after 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


151 

carefully closing the door of the morning-room, 
where no one ever went, she had taken out of a 
little box two miniature-cases, had opened them, 
and then, on seeing side by side a pair of brown 
eyes and a pair of blue ones which smiled up at 
her, she had burst into tears — tears so many and so 
large that the portraits were drowned in them, and 
were visible only as blurred objects dimmed by time 
or by distance. 

Thenceforward Madeleine had persevered in her 
part, with a delicacy and tact hardly to be looked 
for at her age. Though rebuffed at first by the 
extreme astonishment her aunt betrayed at seeing 
the child follow her about day after day, wherever 
she might tie, she had exercised patience, devoting 
her attention to sewing in silence by the old lady’s 
side, till the perfection of her stitches and the discre- 
tion of her behaviour won her observation. Then, 
when Aunt Estelle awoke from her gloomy reverie 
to speak a word of praise, brief though just, her part 
was to keep the conversation alive, and the child 
exerted all her wits to achieve this. Partly by im- 
portunity, partly by her tact, she carried the first 
point: her aunt was willing to have her society, 


52 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


answered her questions and listened to her prattle. 
Then the charm of the bright and lively little spirit 
had worked on her: Mademoiselle Estelle ceased 
to revel in ascetic solitude, and took pleasure in 
allowing the child to take part in her occupa- 
tions. 

They had begun to talk on a footing of confi- 
dence, and Madeleine had made approaches to that 
memory of the past to which she was to appeal 
with a diplomatic caution that would have amused 
any one with a knowledge of the facts who watched 
her innocent arts. She first spoke of her mother, 
feeling that Mademoiselle de Brdvonnes could 
hardly refuse to talk of her, and she loved all the 
details she learned ; then she boldly mentioned her 
uncles in connection with their younger sister. 

“ Uncle Etienne was very fond of her, wasn’t 
he, Aunt Estelle?” 

But Aunt Estelle did not answer, struck dumb, 
as she always was, by any mention of her brothers. 
Madeleine, however, calmly persisted ; she took no 
notice of the chill that had fallen, and she went on 
coaxingly : 

“ Do tell me the history of the spun sugar castle ! 
Mamma used to tell me that when I was not well, 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


153 


and I always laughed myself to sleep over it even 
when I was very bad.” 

The spun sugar castle ! It had all happened 
yesterday, Aunt Estelle could have declared, so 
vivid were all the details at the mere, the word — 
at once pathetic and absurd. 

There was to be a great dinner at Brevonnes — 
one of the dinners so famous in those parts — to which 
all the grand people of the neighbourhood had long 
invitations and looked forward with satisfaction, sure 
of spending some pleasant hours with thei*r enter- 
tainers, and the old wine and good fare for which the 
manor-house was equally noted. Some few even of 
the real epicures wondered, no doubt, what marvel 
of confectionery Dame Barbe, the cook — and a cor- 
don bleu of the kitchen — would have devised on this 
occasion, her creative genius leaving the field open 
to imagination, and never betraying it to disappoint- 
ment. Would it be a supreme de pralines fon- 
dantes — a shape of glacis fruits? No, it was to 
be a spun sugar castle ; and the delicate ornaments 
of sugar lace-work, with the elegant proportions of 
the structure, made it, as Monsieur Etienne pro- 
nounced, a real work of art. 

The summit of this castle especially was a thing 


154 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


to wonder at, with four pointed pinnacles, and be- 
neath them a tiny path all round was paved with 
angelica. 

Every incarnation of sugar was to be seen there 
— crystallized, syrupy, spun, burnt, and translucent ; 
white and iced, with silvery flakes like petrified 
snow ; it seemed impossible that so many different 
effects could be produced with one and the same 
material. A “ set piece ” worthy to be borne in by 
four valets in trunk hose and doublets, to a mediae- 
val banquet, was this erection of Dame Barbe’s. 

She, as solemn as a high priest at a sacrifice, had 
presided over a procession of the household, masters 
and servants alike, marching in file round the struc- 
ture of which she pointed out the beauties with her 
pudgy finger ; and then the marvel was left in its 
glory in the cool twilight of a back kitchen, and 
every one went about his business. 

One person, unfortunately — and that one the 
most interested — had missed the exhibition. This 
was Josette, at that moment fully engaged in the 
park in chasing a blue dragon-fly over which she 
was in great difficulties. 

It was the work of a moment, when she heard 
what she had missed, to ascertain also how she could 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


155 


repair the loss. She carefully pushed the shutter 
open from outside, jumped through the window into 
the darkened room, and made her way on tiptoe to 
the centre-table. 

Every human being, it is said, is brought at least 
once face to face with a supreme temptation, neither 
helped nor urged from without, but equally free to 
yield, or, on the other hand, to show the Invisible 
Witness his power of resistance. That afternoon 
was no doubt this moment in Josette’s life. 
Whether the temptation was too great, or the 
little girl too weak under the pressure of her fa- 
vourite and besetting sin, that day’s record was a 
sad one of her fall. Not ten minutes had slipped 
by when she extended a rash hand to the spot she 
thought the least conspicuous and plucked one of 
the tempting flowers that bloomed before her eyes, 
turning at the same time to the window with one 
of those furtive glances that betray an evil con- 
science. Imperceptible as this first injury was, her 
success was her ruin. After the first sugar flower, 
Josette took another, and again another, till her 
fingers, finding no more pickings beneath, dared 
attack one of the ornaments of the top. The 
shining twist snapped off short in her hand, but 



After this flower, Josette took another. 







MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


157 

she trembled so that her movements were inse- 
cure. She heard a crash that turned her pale with 
terror, and she started back as three of the four 
pinnacles fell on the stone floor and were dashed 
to atoms ! 

Without stopping to think or to consider, over- 
whelmed with the dreadfulness of her guilt, she flew 
off through the window — head or heels first she 
never knew — pushed the tell-tale shutter close, ran 
without stopping to the top of the house, and, in a 
few seconds, cowering in Uncle Etienne’s arms, 
confessed her crime amid a storm of sobs and tears. 
She had gone to him instinctively, and her passion 
of despair and repentance had checked all reproof 
on her big brother’s lips. 

She was so spoiled, was little Josette, fatherless 
and motherless, with her two brothers — men before 
she was born — and her sister, who had brought her 
up, her mother having died at the birth of her 
youngest. To whom should her faults and follies 
be imputed but to them? Whatever she did, was 
it not their fault who had taught her? She was 
never scolded, so what should make her resist any 
idea, whatever it might be, that got into her little 
head ? 


58 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


It was by such reasoning as this — in some points 
right enough, but in others easy to refute — that one 
or the other of her three instructors always found 
some excuse for her. They very honestly tried to 
look shocked, with grave eyes which, as they be- 
lieved, hid the thought behind them ; but this was 
a delusion, for Josette saw through their weakness 
and the excuses they made to themselves. So a 
lecture, given as lightly as it was taken, was the 
end of the affair. 

Thus once again, the little girl’s distress being 
soothed by his lavish tenderness and her confession 
made in every detail, it was the elder who remained 
really contrite, accusing himself of the disaster, if 
not in its result at least in its origin ; and if it were 
his fault, how in justice could he blame Josette? 

There was, however, one point to which his 
courage could no more rise than Josette’s, and that 
was to find Dame Barbe and inform her, face to 
face, of the misfortune that had occurred. The 
child’s heart was stricken with regret and shame 
only at the thought of what the good soul’s grief 
and anger would be. Poor Barbe, who was so 
proud of her work, and always so kind to her ! The 
dinner, her ruling thought for the last fortnight, 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


159 


disgraced by naughty Josette! And to think that 
now no power could undo the catastrophe, and 
that half an hour ago it had all depended on a 
little girl ! 

Ah ! the bitter sorrow of mischief done which 
nothing can ever repair! 

It was in vain that her brother tried to comfort 
her, promised her that they would all forgive her, 
offered to take her misdeed upon himself. She 
could think of nothing but the sugar castle, broken 
and uncrowned ; the old woman’s cruel disappoint- 
ment ; and then, at table, the arrival of this lament- 
able wreck in the midst of the general excitement. 

Then it was that, being at his wits’ end, in de- 
spair at his darling’s distress, and ready to do any- 
thing that might comfort her, an idea dawned on 
the young man. Time was short — very short — for 
a drive to Troyes and back. Still, it was possible. 

No sooner said than done. 

But, when he reached the town, disappointment 
awaited him. Only a man could have been so 
simple as to fancy that even at the very best con- 
fectioners he would find, ready to his hand, any- 
thing fit to take the place of the castle Josette had 
demolished, and he had scoured the place without 


i6o 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


result. Cakes, fondants of every flavour, creams 
of every hue — in vain he looked and questioned ; 
there was nothing to his purpose ; till, quite down- 
hearted and weary, he was about to go home in 
the forlorn hope of finding that Barbe had learned 
the worst and bowed to the blow, when, from his 
seat in the carriage, his eye was caught by the 
glory of an enormous nougat — a christening-cake 
for some neighbour’s festival, to which a pastry- 
cook was putting the finishing touches. 

To rush in, to persuade the man to uncrown the 
edifice at the price of gold, to carry off the battle- 
mented tower on which doves were billing over a 
nest — all this was the affair of an instant. Then, 
at his horse’s best trot, he returned to Brevonnes. 

For greater prudence, he left the carriage at the 
lodge and walked across the park by side paths, 
holding his dish with both hands, and considering 
his next move. 

To reach the window unseen, to step over the 
sill, still holding his precious burden perfectly level, 
and then to place on the sugar castle this unpre- 
meditated crown, were three equally difficult and 
risky undertakings. To fly to his room, change his 
coat, and trust to his desire to save appearances as 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. ibi 

a check on Barbe’s wrath when she discovered the 
deed, was mere child’s play in comparison. 

Thus, with a fixed gaze and bent head, he had 
made his way to the very last turn of the path, 
when, at the moment he was about to cross the 
court-yard, holding the dish straighter than ever, 
with an anticipatory sigh of relief, he came into 
the very midst of a party of guests, hat in hand 
and the pink of propriety, escorted by his brother 
Paulin. 

Both parties stared for an instant ; then they all 
burst out laughing, and the story, as Etienne de 
Brevonnes told it, was, as may be supposed, greatly 
appreciated. 

Then, in procession — for every one wanted to 
see the end of the adventure — they all went to the 
back kitchen to carry out the work of restoration. 
Each one lent a finger to help or had a suggestion 
to offer, patching up the ruins with the still pre- 
sentable fragments, tilting or supporting the nougat , 
and laughing at the fun like schoolboys out for a 
holiday, but swearing solemn secrecy and perfect 
gravity in regard to Josette and Barbe. 

The dinner so gaily begun was one of the 
pleasantest ever given at Brevonnes, and the old 


162 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


cook’s horror could not stand out when she was 
called in at dessert, and the story was told at full 
length by the master of the house, glass in hand. 

Oh, yes, Uncle Etienne had dearly loved his 
little Josette! Madeleine might well say that. 

Aunt Estelle told no more stories that day, 
and Madelon, with native tact, had asked no more ; 
but from that moment the ice was broken, and 
the little girl had heard all she could wish about 
her mother. 

Then, the stories of her childhood being ex- 
hausted, Madeleine had gone still further back, 
questioning her aunt about her uncles and herself, 
wanting to know all she could tell, and imper- 
ceptibly leading Mademoiselle de Brevonnes to 
take pleasure in these reminiscences of the past. 




Madeleine saw the Phanlonde pass. 


CHAPTER XII. 

The pleasures of memory. — How Madeleine was restored to her 
friends. — Walks to the summer-house. — A moonlight night. — 
Eight years later. 

From time to time the old lady would still 
harden herself, as if she were afraid of the current, 
and secretly dreaded the question she always ex- 
pected to hear from the child’s lips, “ Why do you 
never see my uncle, now ? ” 

But Madeleine knew better. 

All she aimed at, by the advice of her friends, 
was to lead Mademoiselle de Brevonnes to talk, 
and even to shed a few tears ; to remember, and, 
having remembered, to regret ; and, having carried 


164 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

out the programme, she refrained from doing any- 
thing more. 

Leaning over the parapet, she saw the Phan- 
londe pass at the hour agreed on, neither hurried 
nor delayed, floating with the stream, as the boys 
had promised. She smiled back at Madame Da- 
caube, who at that hour usually came to sit in the 
meadow, and in a few short words told the news 
of the day, and how her tactics were prospering — 
summed up in one word, almost always the same. 

“Go gently — go gently,” James had said, on 
the day of the grand council. “You must oil 
her, Madelon ” 

And Madelon, amused by the metaphor, would 
say, evening after evening, in an undertone : 

“ I am oiling her, friends — I am oiling her.” 
Adding a few details of the events of the day, 
she said : 

“She showed me two portraits of Uncle Paulin 
and Uncle Etienne, and as she put them away she 
said, ‘Why can such happy days never return?’ 
or another time, ‘To think that we are all three 
still alive, and yet that everything is at an end ! ’ ” 

With all these confessions of regret, the child 
could not imagine how the quarrel was kept up ; 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 165 

indeed, only the proverbial pride of the Brevonnes, 
which was well known to all the country round, 
could possibly account for what had happened. 

Neither of the two eldest would ever take a 
step in advance — that every one said; and Uncle 
Etienne was too shy, feeling that a rebuff would 
be too much for him. This was the opinion of 
all their friends, who had failed one after another 
in their attempts to effect a reconciliation. The 
feud was for life, they said. 

But, in point of fact, the bitterness of their first 
anger had died out, and the soil on which Made- 
leine was working was wonderfully improved. Also 
there was no question of forgiveness or apology ; 
it was impossible to suspect the child of any hidden 
motive. The old lady gave herself up to the mel- 
ancholy charm of living in the past from hour to 
hour, dwelling only on the best side of those she 
talked about, with the natural instinct to speak 
well of one’s kith and kin even if one secretly 
blamed them, and full of renewed tenderness for the 
brothers she thus depicted as so gentle, kind, and 
loving. And at the same time, by a parallel process, 
the little girl’s affection began to grow for the 
woman whom she watched gradually revealing so 


1 66 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


different a second self; and one evening-, standing 
on the terrace, the incredible news she communi- 
cated to her friends, startling the four boys in the 
boat, was — 

“ But I assure you I really love her ! ” 

From that evening the blue pennon which had 
been fluttering some days from Madeleine’s balcony 
was striped with white. At the same time, Made- 
moiselle Estelle, going on from her earlier years 
to more recent times, told her stories of their later 
life at Brevonnes, where they had been even more 
closely knit and intimate after the marriage and 
departure of the spoiled child of the family. Be- 
ing alone, they found that they were tired of dis- 
tant visiting and difficult intercourse, and amply 
sufficient to each other. 

Those were the days of the chapel and the plans 
for it, of Uncle Paulin’s historical researches, and of 
yearly visits to Le Huchoir to give Mademoiselle 
Estelle the pleasure of receiving them in her own 
little home. 

“They used to come just at this time of year,” 
she said with a sigh. “ Oh, those months — August 
and September — that they have spent here!” 

And Madeleine, in her now frequent letters 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 167 

to Br6vonnes and to Troyes, never failed to re- 
mark : 

“ This, my aunt says, is the season when you used 
formerly to come to Le Huchoir. I am sending 
you a rose from the porch — the white rose which 
flowers latest. I know they were those you liked 
best and gathered every day.” And thus in each 
note there was some detail of the past, or some 
story which no one but her aunt could have told 
her, and which the child repeated without com- 
ment, just “that they might know that they were 
often talked about” — as Madame Dacaube recom- 
mended through the boys ; and these letters went 
off to have their quiet but unfailing effect, as her 
talks with her aunt had at home. 

September was drawing to a close ; the short- 
ening days allowed only of moonlight walks in the 
evening. Nevertheless, for a week or more Made- 
moiselle Estelle and Madelon had gone out regu- 
larly after dinner. 

Some words which her aunt had spoken had 
given Madeleine to understand that of old, at this 
hour, they had been wont, all three, to sit together 
in a little summer-house at about a quarter of an 
hour’s walk from the house — an open arbour with 


1 68 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

seats in it, whence they could watch the growing 
darkness, the stars coming out, and the moon 
rising in the sky. So, by degrees, she had got her 
aunt back to this spot. Nay, the first time they 
had gone out for the purpose, as they crossed the 
anteroom, she saw her aunt take down a thick 
plaid, in addition to her own cloak — “ as a precau- 
tion,” she hastily explained ; “ it grows cool.” And 
then she added, sadly : “ I always used to carry 
that plaid for Paulin ; he was so imprudent, in 
spite of his rheumatism ! ” 

And so, mechanically, she always took it on 
her arm whenever she went out in the evening. 

On the first occasion a wonderful surprise was 
in store for Madelon. She and her aunt happened 
to meet the Dacaube boys on their way, and seeing 
her niece’s face brighten at their greeting, a pang 
of remorse pierced her old heart. Turning slowly 
to Madeleine, she said : 

“If those children care to play with you in my 
garden, I will allow it, Madeleine ; only ” 

What the effort cost her Madeleine could never 
know, but the child’s delight must have been some 
reward. Her friends ! her friends ! — to be with them 
again without even a struggle for it ! Was it pos- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. ^9 

sible ? What a happy life would begin for her 
to-morrow ! But then, as she threw herself into 
her aunt’s arrys to thank her, she felt the plaid, 
carried as of yore for Uncle Paulin, though Uncle 
Paulin was never to wear it again, and affectionate 
pity mingled with her joy. 

“To get the boys back again is not every- 
thing,” she said to herself. “ The great task is not 
yet accomplished.” 

So, throwing her whole heart into the task, she 
persisted in her labour of love even in the midst 
of the games she was allowed to enjoy once more, 
clinging to a hope which she and her friends dis- 
cussed in their long chats together, and which kept 
them all in a state of eager anticipation. For the 
five children all took an equal interest in their 
task, and their most earnest desires centred on this 
point : that the reconciliation should take place 
before school should begin again, and fall out just 
as they planned it. 

In all her last letters, at first incidentally and 
then more persistently, Madeleine spoke of this 
walk, now resumed by her aunt to fill up her even- 
ings as of old ; and on this she had built up a 
dream of the two brothers arriving, both on one 


12 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


170 

day, from Br£vonnes and from Troyes — both, per- 
haps, the same evening — and prompted by the same 
feeling that had moved their sister; and that then 
and there, without words or recrimination, the three 
divided souls thus reunited would fancy the old 
days come again, and walk home side by side to 
Le Huchoir. 

This idea possessed her so strongly that she had 
succeeded in impressing her conviction on the boys ; 
and the little girl’s heart beat high every evening 
as they took the accustomed path, while the boys, 
screened by a copse, watched for her return. But 
every evening they had the same disappointment ; 
and, getting a little out of heart, the children were 
beginning to think that perhaps they had better 
be content with what, to their very great surprise, 
they had already gained, and think only of their 
own concerns, expecting nothing further. 

The evenings were getting very cool now. 

“ One day more,” said Aunt Estelle, quite un- 
conscious of the notions that filled Madeleine’s 
brain, “and that must be the last. We cannot 
go out so late.” 

Not go out! This sounded to Madeleine like 
a sentence of death. Salvation lay in that summer- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


171 

house. Her face was clouded and her spirits were 
low as they set out for this last walk. 

She started at every sound ; every shadow 
seemed to be that of a man, and she had the 
greatest difficulty in suppressing a cry as her friends 
rushed past, running after their mother, who was 
on her way to a neighbouring farm, and who had 
previously gone by, wishing them good-evening. 
From afar she had thought they were men. In 
the summer-house she was no better. She started 
so often, and all for nothing, that at last she could 
trust neither her ears nor her eyes, and an ap- 
proaching footstep — real enough this time — had 
not aroused her or her aunt, who was lost in 
thought. 

The moon was high, silvering the river; the 
road in the distance gleamed like another stream, 
but whiter, and the picture was so exactly what it 
had been of old that Mademoiselle Estelle did not 
move, even when two figures, coming from oppo- 
site sides, looked at each other a moment and 
then entered the summer-house. 

Her brothers had come in after a little walk — 
what was there to astonish her in that? 

Then suddenly the real state of the case 


172 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

flashed on her; she turned pale, and rose without 
a sound. 

A moment went by — a solemn moment — leaving 
an impression on Madeleine which she never after- 
wards forgot. The two men and Mademoiselle de 
Brevonnes looked at each other. Then, with out- 
spread hands, they had fallen into each others arms, 
their cheeks wet with tears which glistened in the 
moonshine, while Madeleine lightly stole away, and, 
stopping the boys as they came running back, 
pointed to the group. 

Much moved themselves, and with throbbing 
hearts, they stood still, clasping hands, while Pierre 
muttered to himself the remark which epitomized 
his strongest feeling: 

“I never saw. grown-up persons’ tears before. 
It makes me shiver!” 

In the summer-house, meanwhile, the sister and 
brothers, standing apart, were silent and embar- 
rassed; then mechanically the forgotten phrases of 
a past time came to their tongues, and, at a ges- 
ture of Monsieur de Brevonnes, Uncle Etienne 
asked, as he had always asked on coming in : 

“You will sit awhile, Paulin? And your knee? 
It is rather sharp this evening” — while Mademoi- 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


173 


selle Estelle interrupted him by taking the plaid 
from her arm and saying, “ But I have brought 
his shawl, Etienne.” 

She arranged the shawl, and Monsieur de Brd- 
vonnes, turning round, took the two hands that 
had helped each other to put it on him, and they 
remained sitting and gazing at the familiar, un- 
changed scene : the moon, the stream, the dark 
mass of trees — hut thinking most of the joy that 
was melting their hearts. 

Eight years have elapsed. Madeleine — “ pretty 
Madeleine Leheurle,” as she is called by every one 
— is spending the last day of her girlhood at Brd- 
vonnes. To-morrow she is to be married to James 
Dacaube, the brave knight who had gone forth in 
former days to “ save Madelon,” the tearful little 
girl who had come to them to implore their help 
and friendship ; and seated in a shady nook in the 
park the young couple and the three future broth- 
ers-in-law are talking over old times. 

How many things have happened in these eight 
years, since the hour, of which the remembrance 
is always so touching, when the three Brevonnes 
made up their quarrel, ready to make the home 


MADELEINE'S RESCUE. 


174 

of love and care in which Madeleine has dwelt ever 
since ! 

Then the day after, in the midst of silent happi- 
ness, with a little embarrassment, perhaps, on the 
part of the brothers and sister. Mademoiselle Es- 
telle could not spare the two even for an hour to 
fetch the most necessary articles of their wardrobe. 
And the days that followed before school began 
again — and the holidays were fortunately long that 
year, when the children, mysterious and enchanted, 
contemplated their work from a respectful distance, 
surprised at the result of what had begun in sport, 
gone on in angry feud, ended in kindness, and made 
three households happy. 

During the succeeding years their holidays were 
what they best remembered — vacations full of happy 
days, when the Dacaubes always spent one month 
at least out of two at Brdvonnes, and they always 
made the pilgrimage to Le Huchoir at the end of 
September. During the school terms all the im- 
portant events supplied material for a prolix cor- 
respondence between Madeleine and her friends. 
And thus the packets of letters at the bottom of 
her drawer containing the record of every incident 
of their lives — for instance, the day when Madeleine, 


MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 


175 

in spite of James’s dreadful prophecies, got beyond 
the reign of Charles V, in the history of France 
had given occasion for an exchange of droll epistles 
over which they had often laughed. 

Then the boys had become men ; they had 
chosen and adopted their career. James worked 
at the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Paris, and then 
for two years at Rome. Then, on his return, to 
the great joy of Uncle Etienne, who accepted him 
as his successor — nay, pronounced him soon to be 
his master — to the admiration of Uncle Paulin, 
who said the stalwart youth was worthy to wear 
a helmet and cuirass — and to the delight of Aunt 
Estelle over his courteous deference — came the 
proposal of marriage, at which Brdvonnes rose in 
arms. 

“ What ! take away Madeleine ! Could he think 
of such a thing?” 

The poor fellow, distressed by this indignation, 
though no doubt he had thought of it, was quite 
disconcerted. Must he, then, go through all the 
old struggle once more to win his wife ? ” 

But succour came, allaying his fears as soon 
as they saw the light. This was Madeleine’s “Yes.” 
No one had thought of asking her opinion, but she 


1 76 MADELEINE’S RESCUE. 

asserted it spontaneously, and spoke the one short 
word which made all others needless. 

Then all haste was urged in the work on the 
chapel, in the completion of the frescoes, and, above 
all, the hanging of a bell. This had now been 
done two days, and James, just returned from 
Troyes, intoned the rich, full note of the bell to 
Madeleine in the deepest register of his voice. In 
the chapel, of course, the young people were to be 
married. 

And now, as of old, the five companions had 
been thinking of the morrow, looking forward to 
the future ; the three youngest, as they went in to 
change their dress for dinner, leaving James and 
Madeleine under the trees to anticipate the call of 
the new bell, and fancy that they heard in that de- 
licious peace and silence the merry peal which 
should ring on their wedding-day. 



D, APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS, 


GOOD BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS. 


/CROWDED OUT O' CROFIELD. By William 0 . Stod- 
^ dard. The story of a country boy who fought his way to success 
in the great metropolis. ' With 23 Illustrations by C. T. Hill. 


“ There are few writers who know how to meet the tastes and needs of boys better 
than does William O. Stoddard. This excellent story is interesting, thoroughly whole- 
some, and teaches boys to be men, not prigs or Indian hunters. If our boys would 
read more such books, and less of the blood-and-thunder order, it would be rare good 
fortune.” — Detroit Free Press. 


TNLNG TOM 
Pendleton. 


Georgia. 


AND THE RUNAWAYS By Louis 
The experiences of two boys in the forests of 
With 6 Illustrations by E. W. Kemble. 


“The doings of ‘King’ Tom, Albert, and the happy-go-lucky boy Jim on the 
swamp island, are as entertaining in their way as the old sagas embodied in Scandi- 
navian story.” — Philadelphia Ledger. 


y^HE LOG SCHOOL-HOUSE ON THE COLUMBLA. 
-L By Hezekiah Butterworth, author of “In the Boyhood of 
Lincoln.” With 13 full-page Illustrations by J. Carter Beard, 
E. J, Austen, and others. 

“This book will charm all who turn its pages. There are few books of popular 
information concerning the pioneers of the great Northwest, and this one is worthy of 
sincere praise.” — Seattle Post- Intelligencer. 


m 


E ALL , A story of out-door life and adventure in Ar- 
kansas. By Octave Thanet. With 12 full-page Illustrations 
by E. J. Austen and others. 


“ A story which every boy will read with unalloyed pleasure. . . . The adventures 
of the two cousins are full of exciting interest. The characters, both white and black, 
are sketched directly from nature, for the author is thoroughly familiar with the cus- 
toms and habits of the different types of Southerners that she has so effectively repro- 
duced.” — Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. 



LTTLE SMOKE. A story of the Sioux Indians. By 
William O. Stoddard. With 12 full-page Illustrations by 
F. S. Dellenbaugh, portraits of Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and 
other chiefs, and 72 head and tail pieces representing the various 
implements and surroundings of Indian life. 


“It is not only a story of adventure, but the volume abounds in information con- 
cerning this most powerful of remaining Indian tribes. The work of the author has 
been well supplemented by the artist.” — Boston Traveller. 

‘‘ More elaborately illustrated than any juvenile work dealing with Indian life ever 
published.” — Churchman. 


Uniform binding, cloth, silver. 8vo. $1.50 each. 


New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 


D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 


GOOD BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS. 


LONG THE FLORIDA REEF. By Charles F. 
Holder, joint author of “Elements of Zoology.” With nu- 


merous Illustrations. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

“ The adventures in this book do not belong to the realm of fiction. They are the 
actual happenings in the life of several boys. The book would be just the one to give 
to pupils to awaken an interest in natural history. ” — New York School Journal. 

“ The reader will be entertained with a series of adventures, but when he is done 
he will find that he has learned a good deal about dancing cranes, corals, waterspouts, 
sharks, talking fish, disappearing islands, hurricanes, turtles, and all sorts of wonders 
of the earth and sea and air.” — New York Sun. 

“ As excellent a juvenile for the large number of young people who like natural 
history mixed with their boyish stories as has appeared this season.” — Chicago Times. 


TN THE BO YHOOD OF LINCOLN. A Story of the Black 
Hawk War and the Tunker Schoohnaster. By Hezekiah 
Butterworth, author of “The Zigzag Books,” “The Log 
School-house on the Columbia,” etc. With 12 Illustrations and 
colored Frontispiece. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

“ There is great fascination in these glimpses of Lincoln’s early life, and the artist’s 
accompanying pictures are very clever and welcome.” — Brooklyn Times. 

“ The author presents facts in a most attractive framework of fiction, and imbues 
the whole with his peculiar humor. The illustrations are numerous and of more than 
usual excellence.” — New Haven Palladium. 



ii full-page Illustrations and colored Frontispiece. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

“ No living writer surpasses William O. Stoddard in the art of constructing a story 
to hold the interest of boy readers.” — Philadelphia Inquirer. 

“Young people who are interested in the ever thrilling story of the great rebellion 
will find in this romance a wonderfully graphic picture of New York in war time.” — 
Boston Traveller. 

“ The description of these terrible days and more awful nights is very animated.” — 
New York Evening Post. 


NGLISHMAN'S HA VEN By W. J. Gordon, author of 



“ The Captain- General,” etc. With 8 full-page Illustrations. i2mo. 


Cloth, $1.50. 


“ The story of Louisbourg, which because of its position and the consequences of 
its fall is justly held one of the most notable of the world’s dead cities. The story is 
admirably told.” — Detroit Free Press. 

“Full of exciting adventure, battle, and siege. The hero is a brave young English 
boy who is withrthe soldiers at the fort.” — Chicago Times. 

“ Casually the youthful reader will get much interesting historical information.”—, 
San Francisco Bulletin. 


New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 


D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS 


GOOD BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS. 


o 


N THE OLD FRONTIER. 

author of “ Crowded Out o’ Crofield 


By William 0 . Stoddard, 
” “ Little Smoke,” “ The Battle of 


New York,” etc. With io full-page Illustrations. i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

“ A capital story of life in the middle of the last century. . . . The characters introduced really 
live and talk, and the story recommends itself not only to boys and girls, but to their parents.” 
— New York Times. 


“An exciting narrative. Mr. Stoddard’s stories of adventure are always of the thrilling 
sort which boys like most to read. This tale, which relates to the last raids of the Iroquois, is 
as stirring as the best of those which have come from his pen.” — Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. 

“ The picture which Mr. Stoddard gives of frontier life and dangers is graphic and accurate, 
and it should prove very interesting to every American who finds in the early history and settle- 
ment of the United States a story of self-sacrifice, courage, and perseverance not inferior to any 
which the record of man’s progress can show.” — Philadelphia Item. 


nr HE BO YS OF GREEN WA Y CO URT. A Story of the 

•L Early Years of Washington. By Hezekiah Butterworth, author 
of “ In the Boyhood of Lincoln,” “ The Log School-house on the Co- 
lumbia,” “The Zigzag Books,” etc. With 10 full-page Illustrations. 
i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 

“ Mr. Butterworth has written an excellent book, and one that young people will find delight- 
ful reading.” — Boston Beacon. 

“ Skillfully combining fact and fiction, he has given us a story historically instructive and at 
the same time entertaining.” — Boston Transcript. 

“The book is replete with picturesque incidents and legends of hunting exploits and adven- 
tures, and the figure of young Washington is shown in a light which will be sure to enlist the 
interest of young readers.” — Chicago Herald. 

“ Mr. Butterworth has made his story both absorbing in interest and valuable as a teacher of 
history.” — San Francisco Argonaut. 


7 


VHN BO YD’S AD VENTURES. By Thomas W. Knox, 

author of “The Boy Travelers,” etc. With 12 full-page Illustrations. 
i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 


“ Few modern authors write a more interesting story of travel and adventure for boys than 
does Colonel Knox. He always seems to know just what the boys want to know, and regulates 
his chapters accordingly. . . . The whole story will hold the close attention of the reader.” — 
Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

“The hero is alternately merchant, sailor, man-o’-war’s-man, privateer’s man, pirate, and 
Algerine slave. The bombardment of Tripoli is a brilliant chapter of a narrative of heroic 
deeds.” — Philadelphia Ledger. 

“We venture to assert that no boy who takes up the story of John Boyd will feel inclined to 
put it down until he has turned the last page.” — San P'rancisco Call. 

“This deeply interesting book will make Mr. Knox a greater favorite among young readers 
than ever.” — Boston Home Journal. 


New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 


j 


D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 


DOYS IN THE MOUNTAINS AND ON THE 
PLAINS j or, The Western Adventures of Tom S?nart, Bob 
Edge , and Peter Small. By W. H. Rideing, Member of the 
Geographical Surveys under Lieutenant Wheeler. With ioi 
I llustrations. Square 8vo. Cloth, gilt side and back, $2.50. 

“ A handsome gift-book relating to travel, adventure, and field sports in the West.” 

— New York Times. 

“ Mr. Rideing’s book is intended for the edification of advanced young readers. It 
narrates the adventures of Tom Smart, Bob Edge, and Peter Small, in their travels 
through the mountainous region of the West, principally in Colorado. The author 
was a member of the Wheeler expedition, engaged in surveying the Territories, and 
his descriptions of scenery, mining life, the Indians, games, etc., are in a great meas- 
ure derived from personal observation and experience. The volume is handsomely 
illustrated, and can not but prove attractive to young readers.” — Chicago Journal. 

IDO YS COASTWISE ; or , All Along the Shore. By W. H. 
Rideing. Uniform with “Boys in the Mountains.” With nu- 
merous Illustrations. Illuminated boards, $1.75. 

“ Fully equal to the best of the year’s holiday books for boys. ... In his present 
trip the author takes them among scenes of the greatest interest to all boys, whether 
residents on the coast or inland— along the wharves of the metropolis, aboard the 
pilot-boats for a cruise, with a look at the great ocean steamers, among the life-saving 
men, coast wreckers and divers, and finally on a tour of inspection of lighthouses and 
lightships^ and other interesting phases of nautical and coast life.” — Christian Union. 


UnHE CRYSTAL HUNTERS. A Boy’s Adventures in 
■L the Higher Alps. By George Manville Fenn, author of 
“In the King’s Name,” “Dick o’ the Fens,” etc. i2mo. 
Cloth, $1.50. 

“ This is the boys’ favorite author, and of the many books Mr. Fenn has written 
for them this will please them the best. While it will not come under the head of 
sensational, it is yet full of life and of those stirring adventures which boys always 
delight in.” — Christian at Work. 

“ English pluck and Swiss coolness are tested to the utmost in these perilous ex- 
plorations among the higher Alps, and quite as thrilling as any of the narrow escapes 
is the account of the first breathless ascent of a real mountain-peak. It matters little 
to the reader whether the search for crystals is rewarded or not, so concerned does he 
become for the fate of the hunters.” — Literary World. 


O YD BELTON : The Boy who would not go to Sea. By 
^ George Manville Fenn. With 6 full-page Illustrations. 
i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. 


“Who among the young story-reading public will not rejoice at the sight of the 
old combination, so often proved admirable — a story by Manville Fenn, illustrated by 
Gordon Browne ? The story, too, is one of the good old sort, full of life and vigor, 
breeziness and fun. It begins well and goes on better, and from the time Syd joins 
his ship, exciting incidents follow each other in such rapid and brilliant succession that 
nothing short of absolute compulsion would induce the reader to lay it down.” — London 
Journal of Education. 


New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 


D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 


YOUNG HEROES OF OUR NAVY. 


pAUL JONES . By Molly Elliot Seawell, author of 
“ Little Jarvis,” “Midshipman Paulding,” etc. With 8 full- 
page Illustrations. i2mo. Cloth, $1.00. 


“ The writer is at home on the decks of the old-fashioned craft. The atmosphere 
is thoroughly salty. Numerous illustrations depict the scenes of Paul Jones’s hazard- 
ous adventures. So good a sea story has not been written for a long time.” — Phila- 
delphia Ledger. 

“ It is both romance and history, and will retain the attention of either the boy 
or man who begins to read this account of the most dashing sailor that ever wore a 
uniform.” — St. Louis Republic. 

“ A concise, clear sketch of the ranking officer of the Continental marine, who in 
his day played a large part, and did it so well as to command the applause of every 
patriotic American. To forget the name of Paul Jones would be an act of national 
ingratitude.” — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

“Not merely as interesting as any novel, but a good deal more interesting than 
most novels.” — New York Examifier. 


ftJIDSHIPMAN PA ULDING. A true story of the War 
^ ^ of 1812. By Molly Elliot Seawell. With 6 full-page Il- 
lustrations. 121110. Cloth, $1.00. 

“ The book gives an excellent description of the battle of Lake Champlain, told in 
such interesting style, and so well blended with personal adventure, that every boy 
will delight to read it, and will unavoidably remember its main features.” — Spring- 
field Union. 

“The story is told in a breezy, pleasant style that can not fail to capture the fancy 
of young readers, and imparts much historical knowledge at the same time, while the 
illustrations will help the understanding of the events described. It is an excellent 
book for boys, and even the girls will be interested in it.” — Brooklyn Standard- 
Union. 

“ The author knows how to tell her stories to captivate the boys, and the character 
of her young heroes is such as to elevate and ennoble the reader.” — Hartford Even- 
ing Post. 

“ Young Paulding is a striking character, and his story is fascinating and inspir- 
ing. The work has a historical basis, and is as instructive as it is entertaining.” — 
Indianapolis Sentinel. 



ITTLE JARVIS. The story of the heroic midshipman 
of the frigate “Constellation.” By Molly Elliot Seawell. 
With 6 full-page Illustrations. i2mo. Cloth, $1.00. 


“Founded on a true incident in our naval history. . . . Sowell pictured as to 
bring both smiles and tears upon the faces that are bent over the volume. It is in ex- 
actly the spirit for a boy’s book.” — New York Home Journal. 

“ The author makes the tale strongly and simply pathetic, and has given the world 
what will make it better.” — Hartford Courant. 

“ Not since Dr. Edward Everett Hale’s classic, ‘ The Man without a Country,’ has 
there been published a more stirring lesson in patriotism.” — Boston Beacon. 

“ It is what a boy would call ‘ a real boy’s’ book. Charleston News and Courier. 

“ Any one in search of a thoroughly good book for boys need look no further, for 
this ranks among the very best.” — Milwaukee Sentinel. 


New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 


D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS 


WORKS BY ARABELLA B. BUCKLEY (MRS. FISHER). 

“ Mrs. Fisher has a positive genius for presenting the science of living things in shapes that 
boys and girls can understand .” — Philadelphia Ledger. 

“ Mrs. Fisher’s apprenticeship as secretary to Sir Charles Lyell has resulted in a life-long 
devotion to the natural sciences, the fruits of which have been a series of charming books valuable 
to the young, and indeed to grown-ups .” — The Critic. 


T 


\ HE FAIRY-LAND 

tions. Cloth, $1.50. 


OF SCIENCE. 


With 74 Illustra- 


Contents. — The Fairy-Land of Science: How to Enter it; How to Use it; How to Enjoy 
it. — Sunbeams, and the Work they do. — The Aerial Ocean in which we Live.— A Drop of Water 
on its Travels. — The Two Great Sculptors, Water and Ice. — The Voices of Nature, and How we 
Hear them. — The Life of a Primrose. — The History of a Piece of Coal. — Bees in the Hive. — 
Bees and Flowers. 


'J^HROUGH MAGIC GLASSES , and other Lectures. 

J- quel to “ The Fairy-Land of Science.” Cloth, $1.50. 


A Se- 


Contents. — The Magician’s Chamber by Moonlight. — Magic Glasses and How to Use 
Them. — Fairy Rings and How They are Made. — The Life History of Lichens and Mosses. — 
The History of a Lava-Stream. — An Hour with the Sun. — An Evening with the Stars. — Little 
Beings from a Miniature Ocean. — The Dartmoor Ponies. — The Magician’s Dream of Ancient Days. 


L 


IFE AND HER CHILDREN : Glimpses of Animal Life, 

from the Amoeba to the Insects. With over 100 Illustrations. Cloth, $1.50. 


Contents. — Life’s Simplest Children ; How they Live, and Move, and Build. — How Sponges 
Live. — The Lasso-Throwers of the Ponds and Oceans. — How Star-Fish Walk and Sea-Urchins 
Grow. — The Mantle-covered Animals, and How they Live with Heads and without them. — The 
Outcasts of Animal Life, and the Elastic-ringed Animals by Sea and by Land. — The Mailed 
Warriors of the Sea, with Ringed Bodies and Jointed Feet. — The Snare-Weavers and their 
Hunting Relations. — Insect Suckers and Biters which Change their Coats but not their Bodies. — 
Insect Sippers and Gnawers which Remodel their Bodies within their Coats. — Intelligent Insects 
with Helpless Children, as illustrated by the Ants. 


J/Tf INNER S IN LIFE’S RACE j 

E V boned Family. With numerous Illustrations. 


or, The Great Back- 
Cloth, $1.50. 


Contents. — The Threshold of Backboned Life. — How the Quaint Old Fishes of Ancient 
Times have Lived on into Our Day. — The Bony Fish, and How they have Spread over Sea, and 
Lake, and River. — How the Backboned Animals pass from Water-breathing to Air-breathing, and 
find their Way out upon the Land. — The Cold-blooded Air-breathers of the Globe in Times both 
Past and Present. — The Feathered Conquerors of the Air. — Their Wanderings over Sea and 
Marsh, Desert and Plain. — From Running to Flying, from Mound-laying to Nest-building, from 
Cry to Song. — The Mammalia or Milk-Givers, the simplest Suckling Mother, the active Pouch- 
bearers, and the Imperfect-toothed Animals. — From the Lower and Small Milk-Givers which find 
Safety in Concealment, to the Intelligent Apes and Monkey's. — The Large Milk-givers which have 
conquered the World by Strength and Intelligence. — How the Backboned Animals have returned 
to the Water, and Large Milk-givers Imitate the Fish. — A Bird’s-eye View of the Rise and 
Progress of Backboned Life. 



SHORT HISTORY OF NATURAL SCIENCE j 

and of the Progress of Discovery from the Time of the Greeks to the 
Present Time. New edition, revised and rearranged. With 77 Illus- 
trations. Cloth, $2.00. 


“ The work, though mainly intended for children and young persons, maybe most 
advantageously read by many persons of riper age, and may serve to implant in their 
minds a fuller and clearer conception of ‘ the promises, the achievements, and claims 
of science.’ ” — Journal of Science. 


New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 


D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 



OUISA MUHLBACH'S HISTORICAL 
New edition, 18 vols. Illustrated. i2mo. 


volume, $1.00. Set, in box, $18.00. 


NOVELS. 
Cloth, per 


In offering to the public our new and illustrated i2mo edition of Louisa 
Miihlbach’s celebrated historical romances we wish to call attention to the 
continued and increasing popularity of these books for over thirty years. 
These romances are as well known in England and America as in the au- 
thor’s native country, Germany, and it has been the unanimous verdict that 
no other romances reproduce so vividly the spirit and social life of the times 
which are described. In the vividness of style, abundance of dramatic inci- 
dents, and the distinctness of the characters portrayed, these books offer 
exceptional entertainment, while at the same time they familiarize the reader 
with the events and personages of great historical epochs. 

The titles are as follows : 

Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia. 

The Empress Josephine. 

Napoleon and Blucher. 

Queen Hortense. 

Marie Antoinette and her Son. 

Prince Eugene and his Times. 

The Daughter of an Empress. 

Joseph II and his Court. 

Frederick the Great and his Court. 

Frederick the Great and his Family. 

Berlin and Sans-Souci. 

Goethe and Schiller. 

The Merchant of Berlin, and Maria Theresa 
and her Fireman. 

Louisa of Prussia and her Times. 

Old Fritz and the New Era. 

Andreas Hofer. 

Mohammed Ali and his House. 

Henry VIII and Catherine Parr. 


New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 


D. APPLETON & CO.’S PUBLICATIONS. 


GEORGE H. ELLWANGER’S BOOKS. 

HE GARDEN' S STORY ; or , Pleasures a?id Trials of 



-*■ a 7 i Amateur Gardener. With Head and Tail Pieces by Rhead. 
i2mo. Cloth, extra, $1.50. 

“ One of the most charming books of the season. . . . This little volume, printed 
in excellent taste, is redolent of garden fragrance and garden wisdom. ... It is in no 
sense a text-book, but it combines a vast deal of information with a great deal of out- 
of-door observation, and exceedingly pleasant and sympathetic writing about flowers 
and plants.” — Christian Union. 

“This dainty nugget of horticultural lore treats of the pleasures and trials of an 
amateur gardener. From the time when daffodils begin to peer and the ‘secret of the 
year ’ comes in to mid-October, Mr. Ellwanger provides an outline of hardy flower- 
gardening that can be carried on and worked upon by amateurs. ... A little chapter 
on 1 Warm Weather Wisdom ’ is a presentment of the cream of English literature. 
Nor is the information of this floral calendar confined to the literary or theoretical 
sides. ‘ Plant thickly ; it is easier and more profitable to raise flowers than weeds,’ is 
a practical direction from the garden syllabus. ” — Philadelphia Public Ledger. 

“ A dainty, learned, charming, and delightful book.” — New York Sun. 

“ The book has the flavor of leisure and culture that belonged to such work in the 
last century, and its dainty form and attractive head and tail pieces add to its charm.” 
— San Francisco Chronicle. 

'T'HE STORY OF MY HOUSE. With an Etched Fron- 
tispiece by Sidney L. Smith, and numerous Head and Tail Pieces 
by W. C. Greenough. i2mo. Cloth, extra, $1.50. 

“ An essay on the building of a house, with all its kaleidoscopic possibilities in the 
way of reform, and its tantalizing successes before the fact, is always interesting ; and 
the author is not niggardly in the good points he means to secure. It is but natural to 
follow these with a treatise on rugs full of Orientalism and enthusiasm ; on the literary 
den and the caller, welcome or otherwise ; on the cabinets of porcelain, the rare edi- 
tions on the shelves, the briefly indicated details of the spoils of the chase in their 
proper place ; on the greenhouse, with its curious climate and wonderful botany and 
odors, about which the author writes with unusual charm and precision ; on the dining- 
room and the dinner. . . . The book aims only to be agreeable ; its literary flavor is 
pervasive, its sentiment kept well in hand.” — New York Evening Post. 

“ When the really perfect book of its class comes to a critic’s hands, all the words 
he has used to describe fairly satisfactory ones are inadequate for his new purpose, 
and he feels inclined, as in this case, to stand aside and let the book speak for itself. 
In its own way, it would be hardly possible for this daintily printed volume to do 
better*” — Art Amateur. 

TN GOLD AND SILVER. With many Illustrations. i6mo. 
* Cloth, $2.00. Also, limited edition de luxe , on Japanese vel- 
lum, $5.00. 

In this volume the author carries the reader from the Orient to the outdoor life of 
our own country, of which he is so competent to speak. “ In Gold and Silver” has 
been magnificently illustrated by two of the foremost American artists, W. Hamilton 
Gibson and A. B. Wenzell, who have furnished full-page drawings, vignettes, and 
initials ; while there are several pen-and-ink drawings of Oriental articles by W. C. 
Greenough, and a specially designed title-page and cover by H. B. Sherwin. Alto- 
gether, this book may safely be called one of the best examples of fine book-making 
produced in recent years. 


New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue. 

























































